■irS. 


^^^yiHif^^hk. 


February  15, 189^.    Mo.  20.     UNSETTLED  QUESTIONS.      Fortnigtitly  ;  $5  a  year 
[Entered  at  the  New  York  post-office  as  second-class  matter  ] 


niRECT 


25c. 


LEGISLATION 


BY  THE  CITIZENSHIP 


THROUGH  THE  INITIATIVE  AND  REFERENDUM 


J.     W.     SULLIVAN 


NEW     YORK 
TWENTIETH    CENTURY     PUBLISHING    COMPANY 

1892 


Letters  to  Farmers'  Sons 


ON 


"  THE  QUESTIONS  OF  THE  DAY," 

Being  Familiar  Talks  on  Political   Economy. 


By  H.   S.   ["F»A"]   chased,   IvlD. 


INDEX   TO    SUBJECTS: 


A  Natural  Law  of  Rent.  Banks.  Competition.  Debt— Credit.  Distribution 
of  Wealth.  Equal  Rights.  Frf  edom  of  the  Press.  Freedom  of  the  Mails. 
Government.  Interest.  Immigration  and  Emigration.  Labor.  Labor 
and  Capital.  Labor  Unions.  Land.  Machinery.  Marriage  and  Divorce. 
Maternalism— Paternalism.  Money.  Patents.  Political  Parties.  Popu- 
lation. Poverty.  Production.  Property.  Protection.  Religion— Law- 
Medicine.  Restrictive  Legislation.  Right.  Riches.  Roads.  Safe  Depos- 
its of  the  People  "  Suffrage  "—The  Vote.  Taxation.  The  Good  Time 
Commg.  The  Death  Penalty.  The  Land  Question.  The  Plutocrat  The 
Police  Power  of  the  Nation.  The  Rum  Power.  The  Speculator.  Trade. 
Treatment  of  Crime.    United  States  Bonds.    Wages. 


J^*  This  is  a  work  that  will  make  a  sensation. 


We  are  the  sole  publishers,  and  booksellers  and  dealers  shotild  order  throagb 

us  direct. 


F»aper,  25  cents  ;    cloth,  50  cents. 

Twentieth  Century  Pub.  Co.,  New  York. 


DIRECT      LEGISLATION 


THE     CITIZENSHIP 


THE     INITIATIVE     AND     REFERENDUM 


J.  W.  SULLIVAN 


CONTENTS: 

As  TO  This  Book i. 

The  Initiative  and  Referendum  in  Switzerland          -        -  5 

The  Public  Stewardship  of  Switzerland      -        -        -        -  25 

The  Common  Wealth  of  Switzerland    -----  47 

Direct  Legislation  in  the  United   States    -        -        -        -  72 

The  Way  Open  to  Peaceful  Revolution       -        -        -        -  95 


\_Coi>y 'right,  iSq's,'  by  y!  if'.'  Suilivcn'l 


NEW    YORK 
TWENTIETH     CENTURY    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 

iSg2 


^ 


S3  S3 


AS    TO    THIS    BOOK. 

This  is  the  second  in  a  series  of  sociological  works,  each  a  small 
volume,  I  have  in  course  of  publication.  The  first,  "A  Concept  of 
Political  Justice,"  gave  in  outline  the  major  positions  which  seem 
to  me  logically  to  accord  in  practical  life  with  the  political  princi- 
ple of  equal  freedom.  In  the  present  work,  certain  of  the  positions 
taken  in  the  first  are  amplified.  In  each  of  the  volumes  to  come, 
which  will  be  issued  as  I  find  time  to  complete  them,  similar  amplifi- 
cation in  the  case  of  other  positions  will  be  made.  Naturally,  the 
order  of  publication  of  the  proposed  works  may  be  influenced  by 
the  general  trend  in  the  discussion  of  public  questions. 

The  small-book  plan  I  have  adopted  for  several  reasons.     One  is, 
that  the  writer  who  embodies  his  thought  on  any  large  subject  in  a 
single  weighty  volume  commonly  finds  difiiculty  in  selling  the  work 
or  having  it  read ;  the   price  alone  restricts  its  market,  and  the 
volume,  by  its  very  size,  usually  repels  the  ordinary  reader.    An- 
\}      other,  that  the  radical  world,  which  I  especially  address,  is  nowa- 
]      days  assailed  with  so  much  printed  matter  that  in  it  big  books  have 
"~^      slight  show  of  favor.    Another,  that  the  reader  of  any  volume  in  the 
series  subsequent  to  the  first  may  on  reference  to  the  first  ascertain 
the   train  of  connection  and  entire  scope  of  the  thought  I  would 
present.     And,  finally,  that  such  persons  as  have  been  won  to  the 
sui^port  of  the  principles  taught  may  interest  themselves,  and  per- 
haps others,  in  spreading  knowledge  of   these  principles,  as  de- 
veloped in  the  successive  works. 

On  the  last-mentioned  point,  a  word.  Having  dunng  the  past 
decade  closely  observed,  and  in  some  measure  shared  in,  the  dis' 
cussion  of  advanced  sociological  thought,  I  maintain  with  confi- 
dence the  principles  of  equal  freedom,  not  only  in  their  essential  truth, 
but  in  the  leading  applications  I  have  made  of  them.     At  least,  I 


21120,^ 


As    to    this    Book. 


may  trust  that,  thus  far  in  either  work,  in  coming  to  my  more  im- 
portant conclusions,  I  have  not  fallen  into  error  through  bUnd  de- 
votion to  an  "  ism  "  nor  halted  at  faulty  judgment  because  of  limited 
investigation.  I  therefore  hope  to  have  others  join  with  me,  some 
to  work  quite  in  the  hues  I  follow,  and  some  to  move  at  least  in  the 
direction  of  those  lines. 

The  present  volume  I  have  prepared  with  care.     My  attention 
being  attracted  about  eight  years  ago  to  the  direct  legislation  of 
Switzerland,  I  then  set  about  collecting  what  notes  in  regard  to  that 
institution  I  could  glean  from  periodicals  and  other  publications. 
But  at  that  time  very  Httle  of  value  had    been  printed  in   Eng- 
lish.   Later,  as  exchange  editor  of  a  social  reform  weekly  journal, 
I  gathered  such  facts  bearing  on  the  subject  as  were  passing  about 
in  the  American  newspaper  world,  and  through  the  magazine  in- 
dexes for  the  past  twenty  years  I  gained  access  to  whatever  per- 
taining to  Switzerland  had  gone  on  record  in  the  monthlies  and  quar- 
terlies ;  while  at  the  three  larger  libraries  of  New  York— the  Astor, 
the  Mercantile,  and  the  Columbia  College— I  found  the  principal  de- 
scriptive and  historical  works  on    Switzerland.     But   from  all  these 
sources  only  a  slender   stock  of    information  with   regard  to  the 
influence  of  the  Initiative  and  Referendum  on  the  later  political 
and  economic  development  of  Switzerland  was  to  be  obtained.    So, 
when,  three  years  ago,  mth  inquiry  on  this  point  in  mind,  I  spent 
some  months  in  Switzerland,  about  all  I  had  at  first  on  which  to  base 
investigations  was  a  collection  of  commonplace  or  beclouded  fact 
from  the  newspapers,  a  few  statistics  and  opinions  from  an  English 
magazine  or  two,  and  some  excerpts  from  volumes  by  De  Laveleye 
and  Freeman  which  contained  chapters  treating  of  Swiss  institu- 
tions.    Soon  after,  as  a  result  of  my  observations  in  the  country,  I 
contributed,  under  the  caption  "  Republican  Switzerland,"  a  series 
of  articles  to  the  New  York  "  Times  "  on  the  Swiss  government  of 
today,  and,  last  April,  an  essay  to  the  ' '  Chautauquan  "  magazine  on 
"  The  Referendum  in  Switzerland."     On  the  form  outlined  in  these 
articles  I  have  constructed  the  first  three  chapters  of  the  present 
work.    The  data,  however,  excepting  in  a  few  cases,  are  corrected 


As    to    this    Book. 


to  1892,  and  in  many  respects  besides  I  have  profited  by  the  labors 
of  other  men  in  tlie  same  field. 

The  past  two  years  and  a  half  has  seen  much  writing  on  Swiss 
institutions.  Political  investigators  are  awakening  to  the  fact  that 
in  politics  and  economics  the  Swiss  are  doing  what  has  never  before 
been  done  in  the  world.  In  neighborhood,  region,  and  nation,  the 
entire  citizenship  iu  each  case  concerned  is  in  details  operating  the 
government.  In  certain  cantons  it  is  done  iu  every  detail.  Doing 
this,  the  Swiss  are  moving  rapidly  in  practically  grappling  with 
social  problems  that  elsewhere  are  hardly  more  than  speculative 
topics  with  scholars  and  theorists.  In  other  countries,  consequently, 
interested  lookers-on,  having  from  different  points  of  view  taken 
notes  of  democratic  Switzerland,  are,  through  newspaper,  maga- 
zine, and  book,  describing  its  unprecedented  progress  and  suggest- 
ing to  their  own  countrymen  what  in  Swiss  governmental  experi- 
ence may  be  found  of  value  at  home.  Of  the  more  solid  writing  of 
this  character,  four  books  may  especially  be  reconmended.  I  men- 
tion them  in  the  order  of  their  publication. 

"  The  Swiss  Confederation."  By  Sir  Francis  Ottiwell  Adams  and 
C.D.Cunningham.  (London:  Macmillan  &  Co. ;  i8Sg  ;  289  pages  ; 
$1.75.)  Sir  Francis  Ottiwell  Adams  was  for  some  years  British 
Minister  at  Berne. 

"The  Federal  Government  of  Switzerland:  An  Essay  on  th 
Constitution."  By  Bernard  Moses,  Ph.  D.,  professor  of  history  and 
political  economy,  University  of  California.  (Pacific  Press  Publish- 
ing Company  :  Oakland,  Cal. ;  1889  ;  256  pages  ;  $1.25.)  This  work 
is  largely  a  comparative  study  of  constitutions.  It  is  meant  chiefly 
for  the  use  of  students  of  law  and  of  legal  history.  It  abounds, 
however,  in  facts  as  to  Switzerland  which  up  to  the  time  of  its  pub- 
lication were  quite  inaccessible  to  American  readers. 

"  State  and  Federal  Government  of  Switzerland."  By  John  Mar- 
tin Vincent,  Ph.  D.,  librarian  and  instructor  in  the  department  of 
history  and  politics,  Johns  Hopkins  University.  (Baltimore  :  Johns 
Hopkins  Press;  1891  ;  247  pages  ;  $1.50.)  Professor  Vincent  had 
access,  at  the  university,  to  the  considerable  collection  of  books  and 


As    to    this    Book. 


papers  relating  to  Switzerland  made  by  Professor  J.  C.  Bluntschli, 
an  eminent  Swiss  historian  who  died  in  i88i,and  also  to  a  large 
number  of  government  publications  presented  by  the  Swiss  Federal 
Council  to  the  university  library. 

"  The  Swiss  Republic."  By  Boyd  AVinehester,  late  United  States 
Minister  at  Berne.  (Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.;  1S91  ; 
487  pages  ;  $1.50.)  Mr.  Winchester  was  stationed  four  years  at 
Berne,  and  hence  had  better  opportunity  than  Professor  Vincent  or 
Professor  Moses  for  obtaining  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  Switz- 
erland.    Much  of  his  book  is  taken  up  with  descriptive  writing,  all 

good. 

Were  I  asked  which  of  these  four  works  affords  the  fullest  infor- 
mation as  to  new  Switzerland  and  new  Swiss  political  methods,  I 
should  be  obliged  to  refer  the  inquirer  to  h"s  own  needs.  Professor 
Moses's  is  best  for  one  applying  himself  to  law  and  constitu- 
tional history.  Professor  Vincent's  is  richest  in  systematized  de- 
tails and  statistics,  especially  such  as  relate  to  the  Referendum  and 
taxation  ;  and  in  it  also  is  a  bibliography  of  Swiss  politics  and  his- 
tory. For  the  general  reader,  desiring  description  of  the  country, 
stirring  democratic  sentiment,  and  an  all-round  view  of  the  great 
little  republic,  Mr.  Winchester's  is  preferable. 

In  expanding  and  rearranging  my  "  Times"  and  "  Chautauquan 
articles,  I  have,  to  some  extent,  used  these  books.  I  have  derived 
pleasure  in  finding  that  their  authors,  in  the  facts  they  present, 
have  brought  little  or  no  contradiction  to  my  radical  assertions 
and  deductions  as  to  Switzerland.  Their  testimony,  I  believe,  must 
convince  readers  that  the  close  connection  of  cause  and  effect  whlc'i 
I  have  traced  between  direct  legislation  and  the  high  position  of 
Switzerland  among  the  nations  is  true. 

Throughout  this  work,  wherever  possible,  conservatives,  rather 
than  myself,  have  been  made  to  speak  ;  hence  quotations  are  fre- 
quent. The  first  draft  of  the  chapters  on  Switzerland  have  been  read 
by  Swiss  radicals  of  different  schools,  and  the  final  proof  sheets 
have  been  revised  by  a  Swiss  writer  of  repute  living  in  New  York  ; 
therefore  serious  error  is  hardly  probable.     The  one  fault  I  myself 


j4s    to    this    Book. 


have  to  find  with  the  work  is  its  baldness  of  statement,  rendered 
necessary  by  space  hmits.  I  could,  perhaps  more  easily,  have  pre- 
pared four  or  five  hundred  pages  instead  of  the  one  hundred  and 
twenty.  I  leave  it  rather  to  the  reader  to  supply  comparison  and 
analysis  and  the  eloquent  comment  of  which,  it  seems  to  me,  many 
of  the  statements  of  fact  are  worthy. 

Such  readers  as  should  wish  to  assist  in  developing  direct  legisla- 
tion in  this  country,  I  invite  to  address  me,  care  of  the  "  Twentieth 
Century,"  New  York.  J.  W.  S. 


THE    INITIATIVE    AND    REFERENDUM    IN 
vSWITZERLAND. 

Democratic  versics  Representative  Govern?nent. 

There  is  a  radical  difference  between  a  democra- 
cy and  a  representative  government.  In  a  democ- 
racy, the  citizens  themselves  make  the  law  and  super- 
intend its  administration  ;  in  a  representative  govern- 
ment, the  citizens  empower  legislators  and  executive 
officers  to  make  the  law  and  to  carry  it  out.  Under  a  de- 
mocracy, sovereignty  remains  uninterruptedly  with 
the  citizens,  or  rather  a  changing  majority  of  the  citi- 
zens ;  under  a  representative  government,  sovereignty 
is  surrendered  by  the  citizens,  for  stated  terms,  to  offi- 
cials. In  other  words,  democracy  is  direct  rule  by  the 
majority,  while  in  a  representative  government  rule  is 
by  a  succession  of  quasi-oligarchies,  indirectly  and  re- 
motely responsible  to  the  majority. 

Observe,  now,  first,  the  influences  that  chiefly  con- 
tribute to  make  government  in  the  United  States  what 
it  is  : — 

The  county,  state,  and  federal  governments  are  not 
democracies.  In  form,  they  are  quasi-oligarchies  com- 
posed of  representatives  and  executives  ;  but  in  fact 
they  are  frequently  complete  oligarchies,  composed  in 
part  of  unending  rings  of  politicians  that  directly  con- 
trol the  law  and  the  offices,  and  in  part  of  the  perma- 


6  THE   INITIATIVE    AND    REFERENDUM 

nent  plutocracy,  who  purchase  legislation  through  the 
politicians. 

Observe,  next,  certain  strong  influences  for  the  bet- 
ter that  obtain  in  a  pure  democracy  : — 

An  obvious  influence  is,  in  one  respect,  the  same  as 
that  which  enriches  the  plutocrat  and  prompts  the 
politician  to  reach  for  power — self-interest.  When  all 
the  members  of  any  body  of  men  find  themselves  in 
equal  relation  to  a  profitable  end  in  which  they  solely 
are  concerned,  they  will  be  inclined,  first,  to  assert 
their  joint  independence  of  other  bodies  in  that  re- 
spect, and,  secondly,  each  member  will  claim  his  full 
share  of  whatever  benefits  arise.  But,  more  than  that ; 
something  like  equality  of  benefits  being  achieved, 
perhaps  through  various  agencies  of  force,  a  second 
influence  will  be  brought  powerfully  to  bear  on  those 
concerned.  It  is  that  of  justice.  Fair  play  to  all  the 
members  will  be  generally  demanded. 

In  a  pure  democracy,  therefore,  intelligently  con- 
trolled self-interest  and  a  consequent  sentiment  of 
justice  are  the  sources  in  which  the  highest  possible 
social  benefits  may  be  expected  to  begin. 

The  reader  has  now  before  him  the  political  princi- 
ple to  be  here  maintained — pure  democracy  as  distin- 
guished from  representative  government.  My  argu- 
ment, then,  becomes  this  :  To  show  that,  by  means  of 
the  one  lawmaking  method  to  which  pure  democracy 
is  restricted,— that  of  direct  legislation  by  the  citizen- 
ship,—the  political  "ring,"  "boss,"  and  "heeler  "  may 
be  abolished,  the  American  plutocracy  destroyed,  and 


IN    SWITZERLAND.  7 

government  simplified  and  reduced  to  the  limits  set 
by  the  conscience  of  the  majority  as  affected  by  social 
necessities.  My  task  involves  proof  that  direct  legis- 
lation is  possible  with  large  communities. 

Direct  Legislation  in  Switzerland. 

Evidence  as  to  the  practicability  and  the  effects  of 
direct  legislation  is  afforded  by  Switzerland,  especial- 
ly in  its  history  during  the  past  twenty-five  years.  To 
this  evidence  I  turn  at  once. 

There  are  in  Switzerland  twenty-two  cantons 
(states),  which  are  subdivided  into  2,706  communes 
(townships).  The  commune  is  the  political  as  well  as 
territorial  unit.  Commonly,  as  nearly  as  consist- 
ent with  cantonal  and  federal  rights,  in  local  affairs 
the  commune  governs  itself.  Its  citizens  regard  it  as 
their  smaller  state.  It  is  jealous  of  interference  by  the 
greater  state.  It  has  its  own  property  to  look  after. 
Until  the  interests  of  the  canton  or  the  Confederation 
manifestly  replace  those  of  the  immediate  locality,  the 
commune  declines  to  part  with  the  administration  of  its 
lands,  forests,  police,  roads,  schools,  churches,  or  taxes. 

Throughout  Switzerland  the  adult  male  inhabitants 
of  the  commune  meet  at  least  once  annually,  usually 
in  the  town  market  place  or  on  a  mountain  plain,  and 
carry  out  their  functions  as  citizens.  There  they  de- 
bate proposed  laws,  name  officers,  and  discuss  affairs 
of  a  public  nature.  On  such  occasions,  every  citizen 
is  a  legislator,  his  voice  and  vote  influencing  the  ques- 
tions   at    issue.     The  right    of    initiating  a   measure 


^  THE    INITIATIVE    AND    REFERENDUM 

belongs  to  each.  Decision  is  ordinarily  made  by  show 
of  hands.  In  most  cantons  the  youth  becomes  a  voter 
at  twenty,  the  legal  age  for  acquiring  a  vote  in  federal 
affairs,  though  the  range  for  cantonal  matters  is  from 
eighteen  to  twenty-one. 

Similar  democratic  legislative  meetings  govern  two 
cantons  as  cantons  and  two  other  cantons  divided  into 
demi-cantons.  In  the  demi-canton  of  Outer  Appen- 
zell,  13,500  voters  are  qualified  thus  to  meet  and  legis- 
late, and  the  number  actually  assembled  is  sometimes 
10,000.  But  this  is  the  highest  extreme  for  such  an 
assemblage — a  Landsgemeinde  (a  land-community) — 
the  lowest  for  a  canton  or  a  demi-canton  comprising 
about  3,000.  One  other  canton  (Schwyz,  50,307  inhabi- 
tants) has  Landsgemeinde  meetings,  there  being  six, 
with  an  average  of  2,000  voters  to  each.  In  com- 
munal political  assemblages,  however,  there  are  usu- 
ally but  a  few  hundred  voters. 

The  yearly  cantonal  or  demi-cantonal  Landsge- 
meinde takes  place  on  a  Sunday  in  April  or  May. 
While  the  powers  and  duties  of  the  body  vary  some- 
what in  different  cantons,  they  usually  cover  the  fol- 
lowing subjects:  Partial  as  well  as  total  revision  of 
the  constitution  ;  enactment  of  all  laws  ;  imposition  of 
direct  taxes  ;  incurrence  of  state  debts  and  alienation 
of  public  domains  ;  the  granting  of  public  privileges  ; 
assumption  of  foreigners  into  state  citizenship  ;  estab- 
lishment of  new  offices  and  the  regulation  of  salaries  ; 
election  of  state,  executive,  and  judicial  officers.* 

*  J.  M.  Vincent .  "State  and  Federal  Government  in  Switzerland." 


IN     SWITZERLAND.  9 

The  programme  for  the  meeting  is  arranged  by  the 
officials  and  published  beforehand,  the  law  in  some 
cantons  requiring  publication  four  weeks  before  the 
meeting,  and  in  others  but  ten  days.  "  To  give  oppor- 
tunities for  individuals  and  authorities  to  make  pro- 
posals and  offer  bills,  the  official  gazette  announces 
every  January  that  for  fourteen  days  after  a  given 
date  petitions  may  be  presented  for  that  purpose. 
These  must  be  written,  the  object  plainly  stated  and 
accompanied  by  the  reasons.  All  such  motions  are 
considered  by  what  is  called  the  Triple  Council,  or 
legislature,  and  are  classified  as  'expedient'  and  'in- 
expedient.' A  proposal  receiving  more  than  ten  votes 
must  be  placed  on  the  list  of  expedient,  accompanied 
by  the  opinion  of  the  council.  The  rejected  are  placed 
under  a  special  rubric,  familiarly  called  by  the  people 
the  Beiwagen.  The  assembly  may  reverse  the  action  of 
the  council  if  it  chooses  and  take  a  measure  out  of  the 
'extra  coach,' but  consideration  of  it  is  in  that  case 
deferred  until  the  next  year.  In  the  larger  assemblies 
debate  is  excluded,  the  vote  being  simply  on  rejection 
or  adoption.  In  the  smaller  states  the  line  is  not  so 
tightly  drawn.  .  .  .  Votes  are  taken  by  show  of 
hands,  though  secret  ballot  may  be  had  if  demanded, 
elections  of  officers  following  the  same  rule  in  this 
matter  as  legislation.  Nominations  for  office,  how- 
ever, need  not  be  sent  in  by  petition,  but  may  be 
offered  by  any  one  on  the  spot."* 

*  Vincent. 


lO  THE   INITIATIVE    AND    REFERENDUM 

The  Initiative  and  the  Refcretidum. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  basic  practical  princi- 
ples of  both  the  communal  meeting  and  the  Landsge- 
meinde  are  these  two  : 

(i)  That  every  citizen  shall  have  the  right  to  pro- 
.pose  a  measure  of  law  to  his  fellow-citizens — this  prin- 
ciple being  known  as  the  Initiative. 

(2)  That  the  majority  shall  actually  enact  the  law 
by  voting  the  acceptance  or  the  rejection  of  the  meas- 
ures proposed.  This  principle,  when  applied  in  non- 
Landsgemeinde  cantons,  through  ballotings  at  polling 
places,  on  measures  sent  from  legislative  bodies  to  the 
people,  is  known  as  the  Referendum. 

The  Initiative  has  been  practiced  in  many  of  the 
communes  and  in  the  several  Landsgemeinde  cantons 
in  one  form  or  other  from  time  immemorial.  In  the' 
past  score  of  years,  however,  it  has  been  practiced  by 
petition  in  an  increasing  number  of  the  cantons  not 
having  the  democratic  assemblage -of  all  the  citizens. 

The  Referendum  owes  its  origin  to  two  sources. 
One  source  was  in  the  vote  taken  at  the  communal 
meeting  and  the  Landsgemeinde.  The  principle  some- 
times extended  to  cities,  Berne,  for  instance,  in  the 
fifty-five  years  from  1469  to  1524,  taking  sixty  referen- 
dary votings.  The  other  source  was  in  the  vote  taken 
by  the  ancient  cantons  on  any  action  by  their  dele- 
gates to  the  federal  Diet,  or  congress,  these  delegates 
undertaking  no  affair  except  on  condition  of  referring 
it  to  the  cantonal  councils — ad  referendum. 


IN     SWITZERLAND. 


The  principles  of  the  Initiative  and  Referendum 
have  of  recent  years  been  extended  so  as  to  apply,  to 
a  greater  or  lesser  extent,  not  only  to  cantonal  affairs 
in  cantons  far  too  large  for  the  Landsgemeinde,  but  to 
affairs  of  the  whole  Swiss  Confederation,  comprising 
three  million  inhabitants.  In  other  words,  the  Swiss 
nation  today  sees  clearly,  first,  that  the  democratic  sys- 
tem has  manifold  advantages  over  the  representative  ; 
and,  secondly,  that  no  higher  degree  of  political  free- 
dom and  justice  can  be  obtained  than  by  granting  to  the 
least  practicable  minority  the  legal  right  to  propose  a 
law  and  to  the  majority  the  right  to  accept  or  reject  it. 
.  In  enlarging  the  field  of  these  working  principles,  the 
Swiss  have  developed  in  the  political  world  a  factor 
which,  so  far  as  it  is  in  operation,  is  creating  a  revolu- 
tion to  be  compared  only  with  that  caused  in  the  in- 
dustrial world  by  the  steam  engine. 

The  cantonal  Initiative  exists  in  fourteen  of  the 
twenty-two  cantons,  in  some  of  them,  however,  only 
in  reference  to  constitutional  amendments.  Usually, 
the  proposal  of  a  measure  of  cantonal  law  by  popular 
initiative  must  be  made  through  petition  by  from  one- 
twelfth  to  one-sixteenth  of  the  voters  of  the  canton. 
When  the  petition  reaches  the  cantonal  legislature,  the 
latter  body  is  obliged,  within  a  brief  period,  specified 
by  the  constitution,  to  refer  the  proposal  to  a  cantonal 
vote.  If  the  decision  of  the  citizens  is  then  favorable, 
the  measure  is  law,  and  the  executive  and  judicial 
officials  must  proceed  to  carry  it  into  effect. 


12  THE    INITIATIVE    AND    REFERENDUM 

The  cantonal  Referendum  is  in  constant  practice  in 
all  the  cantons  except  Freiburg,  which  is  governed 
by  a  representative  legislature.  The  extent,  however, 
to  which  the  Referendum  is  applied  varies  consid- 
erably. In  two  cantons  it  is  applicable  only  to  finan- 
cial measures;  in  others  it  is  optional  with  the  people, 
who  sometimes  demand  it,  but  oftener  do  not ;  in 
others  it  is  obligatory  in  connection  with  the  passage 
of  every  law.  More  explicitly  :  In  the  canton  of  Vaud 
a  mere  pseudo-referendary  right  exists,  under  which 
the  Grand  Council  (the  legislature)  may,  if  it  so  de- 
cides, propose  a  reference  to  the  citizens.  Valais  takes 
a  popular  vote  only  on  such  propositions  passed  by  the 
Grand  Council  as  involve  a  one  and  a  half  per  cent 
increase  in  taxation  or  a  total  expenditure  of  60,000 
francs.  With  increasing  confidence  in  the  people,  the 
cantons  of  Lucerne,  Zug,  Bale  City,  Schaffhausen,  St. 
Gall,  Ticino,  Neuchatel,  and  Geneva  refer  a  proposed 
law,  after  it  has  passed  the  Grand  Council,  to  the 
voters  when  a  certain  proportion  of  the  citizens,  usu- 
ally one-sixth  to  one-fourth,  demand  it  by  formal 
petition.  This  form  is  called  the  optional  Referen- 
dum. Employed  to  its  utmost  in  Zurich,  Schwyz, 
Berne,  vSoleure,  Bale  Land,  Aargau,  Thurgau,  and  the 
Grisons,  in  these  cantons  the  Referendum  permits  no 
law  to  be  passed  or  expenditure  beyond  a  stipulated 
sum  to  be  made  by  the  legislature  without  a  vote  of 
the  people.  This  is  known  as  the  obligatory  Referen- 
dum. Glarus,  Uri,  the  half  cantons  of  Niwald  and 
Obwald  (Unterwald),  and  those  of  Outer  and  Inner 


In   swiT/^krlanu. 


13 


Appenzell,  as  cantons,   or  dcmi-cantons,  still  practice 
the  democratic  assemblage — the  Landsgemeinde. 

In  the  following  statistics,  the  reader  may  sec  at  a 
glance  the  progress  of  the  Referendum  to  the  present 
date,  with  the  population  of  Switzerland  by  cantons, 
and  the  difficulties  presented  by  differences  of  lan- 
guage in  the  introduction  of  reforms  : — 


No.  inhab. 

Form  of  Pass- 

Yr. of 

Canton. 

Dec.,i88S. 

Language. 

ing  Laws. 

Entry 

Zurich    .     .     . 

337,183 

German. 

Obhg.  Ref. 

1351 

Berne     .     .     . 

536,679 

Ger.  and  French. 

" 

1353 

Lucerne.     .     . 

135,360 

German. 

Optional  Ref. 

1332 

Uri     .... 

17,249 

Ger.  and  Italian. 

Landsgemeinde. 

1291 

Schwyz       .     . 

50,307 

German. 

Obfig.  Ref. 

" 

Unterwald 

" 

Obwald  .     . 

15,041 

" 

Landsgemeinde. 

Niwald    .     . 

12.538 

" 

" 

Glarus    .     .     . 

33.825 

" 

" 

1352 

Zug  .     .     .     . 

23,029 

" 

Optional  Ref. 

Freiburg     .     . 

119.155 

French  and  Ger. 

Legislature. 

14S1 

Soleure  .     .     . 

85,621 

German. 

Oblig.  Ref. 

" 

Bale 

1501 

City    .     .     . 

73-749 

" 

Optional  Ref. 

Country  .     . 

61,941 

" 

Oblig.  Ref. 

Schauffhausen 

37,783 

" 

Optional  Ref. 

.  J 

Appenzeil 

1573 

Outer       .     . 

54.109 

" 

Landsgemeinde. 

Inner       .     . 

12,888 

" 

" 

St.  Gall       .     . 

228,160 

" 

Optional  Ref. 

1803 

Grisons       .     . 

94,810 

Ger.,  Ital.,Rom. 

Oblig.  Ref. 

" 

Aargau       .     . 

193,580 

German. 

" 

" 

Thurgau    .     . 

104,678 

" 

" 

" 

Ticino    .     .     . 

126,751 

Italian. 

Optional  Ref. 

" 

Vaud.     .     .     . 

247,655 

French  and  Ger. 

" 

" 

Valais    .     .     . 

101,985 

" 

Finance  Ref. 

1S14 

Neuchatel  .     . 

108,153 

French. 

Optional  Ref. 

Geneva .     .     . 

105,509 

" 

2,917,740 

In  round  numbers,  2,092,000  of  the  Swiss  people 
speak  German,  637,000  French,  156,000  Italian,  and 
30,000  Romansch.     Of  the  principal  cities,  in  18S7,  Zu- 


14  THE    INITIATIVE    AND    REFERENDUM 

rich,  with  suburbs,  had  92,685  inhabitants  ;  Bale,  73,- 
963  ;  Geneva,  with  suburbs,  73,504  ;  Berne,  50,220  ;  Lau- 
sanne, 32,954;  and  five  others  from  17,000  to  25,000. 
Fourteen  per  cent  of  the  inhabitants  (410,000)  live 
in  cities  of  more  than  15,000.  The  factory  workers 
number  161,000,  representing  about  half  a  million  in- 
habitants, and  the  peasant  proprietors  nearly  260,000, 
representing-  almost  two  millions.  The  area  of  Switz- 
erland is  15,892  square  miles, — slightly  in  excess  of 
double  that  of  New  Jersey.  The  population  is  slightly 
less  than  that  of  Ohio. 

Switzerland — The   Youngest  of  Republics. 

It  is  misleading  to  suppose,  as  is  often  done,  that 
the  Switzerland  of  today  is  the  republic  which  has 
stood  for  six  hundred  years.  In  truth,  it  is  the  young- 
est of  republics.  Its  chief  governmental  features,  can- 
tonal and  federal,  are  the  work  of  the  present  genera- 
tion. Its  unique  executive  council,  its  democratic 
army  organization,  its  republican  railway  manage- 
ment, its  federal  post-office,  its  system  of  taxation,  its 
two-chambered  congress,  the  very  Confederation  itself 
— all  were  originated  in  the  constitution  of  1848,  the 
first  that  was  anything  more  than  a  federal  compact. 
The  federal  Referendum  began  only  in  1874.  The  fed- 
eral Initiative  has  been  just  adopted  (1891.)  The  form 
of  cantonal  Referendum  now  practiced  was  but  begnn 
(in  St.  Gall)  in  1830,  and  forty  years  ago  only  five 
cantons  had  any  Referendum  whatever,  and  these  in 
the   optional   form.     It  is   of  very  recent  years   that 


IN     SWITZERLAND.  15 

the  movement  has  become  steady  toward  the  general 
adoption  of  the  cantonal  Referendum.  In  i860  but  34 
per  cent  of  the  Swiss  possessed  it,  66  per  cent  delegat- 
ing their  sovereign  rights  to  representatives.  But  in 
1S70  the  referendariship  had  risen  to  71  per  cent,  only 
29  submitting  to  lawmaking  officials  ;  and  today  the 
proportions  are  more  than  90  per  cent  to  less  than  10. 

The  thoughtful  reader  will  ask  :  Why  this  continual 
progress  toward  a  purer  democracy  ?  Wherein  lie  the 
inducements  to  this  persistent  revolution  ? 

The  answer  is  this  :  The  masses  of  the  citizens  of 
Switzerland  found  it  necessary  to  revolt  against  their 
plutocracy  and  the  corrupt  politicians  who  were  ex- 
ploiting the  country  through  the  representative  sys- 
tem. For  a  peaceful  revolution  these  masses  found  the 
means  in  the  working  principles  of  their  communal 
meetings — the  Initiative  and  Referendum, — and  these 
principles  they  are  applying  throughout  the  republic 
as  fast  as  circumstances  admit.* 

The  great  movement  for  democracy  in  Europe  that 
culminated  in  the  uprising  of  1848  brought  to  the  front 
many  original  men,  who  discussed  innovations  in  gov- 
ernment from  every  radical  point  of  view.  Among 
these  thinkers  were  Martin  Rittinghausen,  Emile  Gi- 
rardin,  and  Louis  Blanc.  From  September,  1850,  to 
December,  185 1,  the  date  of  the  coup  d'etat  of  Louis  Bo- 
naparte, these  reformers  discussed,  in  the  "  Democratic 

*  While  the  reports  of  the  Secretary  of  State  and  "The  History  of  the  Ref- 
erendum," by  Th.  Curti,  will  bear  owt  many  of  the  statements  here  made  as 
to  how  the  change  from  representative  to  direct  legislation  came  about,  the 
story  as  I  give  it  has  been  written  me  by  Herr  Carl  Biirkli,  of  Zurich,  known 
in  his  canton  as  the  "  Father  of  the  Referendum." 


l6  THE   INITIATIVE    AND    REFERENDUM 

pacifique,"  a  weekly  newspaper  of  Paris,  the  subject  of 
direct  legislation  by  the  citizens.  Their  essays  created 
a  sensation  in  France,  and  more  than  thirty  journals 
actively  supported  the  proposed  institution,  when  the 
coup  d'etat  put  an  end  to  free  speech.  The  articles  were 
reprinted  in  book  form  m  Brussels,  and  other  works 
on  the  subject  were  afterward  issued  by  Rittinghauscn 
and  his  co-worker  Victor  Considerant.  Among  Con- 
siderant's  works  was  "  Solution,  ou  gouvernement  di- 
rect du  peuple,"  and  this  and  companion  works  that 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Carl  Biirkli  convinced  the  latter 
and  other  citizens  of  Zurich  ("  an  unknown  set  of 
men,"  says  Biirkli)  of  the  practicability  of  the  demo- 
cratic methods  advocated.  The  subject  was  widely 
agitated  and  studied  in  Switzerland,  and  the  fact  that 
the  theory  was  already  to  some  extent  in  practice 
there  (and  in  ancient  times  had  been  much  practiced) 
led  to  further  experiments,  and  these,  attaining  success, 
to  further,  and  thus  the  work  has  gone  on.  The  cantonal 
Initiative  was  almost  unknown  outside  the  Landsge- 
meinde  when  it  was  established  in  Zurich  in  1869. 
Soon,  however,  through  it  and  the  obligatory  Referen- 
endum  (to  use  Herr  Biirkli's  words)  :  "  The  plutocratic 
government  and  the  Grand  Council  of  Zurich,  which 
had  connived  with  the  private  banks  and  railroads, 
were  pulled  down  in  one  great  voting  swoop.  The  peo- 
ple had  grown  tired  of  being  beheaded  by  the  office- 
holders after  every  election."  And  politicians  and 
the  privileged  classes  have  ever  since  being  going 
down  before  these  instruments   in  the  hands  of  the 


IN     SWITZERLAND.  I7 

people.  The  doctrines  of  the  French  theorists  needed 
but  to  be  engrafted  on  ancient  Swiss  custom,  the 
Frenchmen  in  fact  having  drawn  upon  Swiss  experi- 
ence. 

The  Optional  and  the  Obligatory  Referendum. 

To-day  the  movement  in  the  Swiss  cantons  is  not 
only  toward  the  Referendum,  but  toward  its  obligatory 
form.  The  practice  of  the  optional  form  has  revealed 
defects  in  it  which  are  inherent.* 

Geneva's  management  of  the  optional  cantonal  Ref- 
erendum is  typical.  The  constitution  provides  that, 
certain  of  the  laws  being  excepted  from  the  Referen- 
dum, and  a  prerequisite  of  its  operation  being  the  pres- 
entation to  the  Grand  Council  of  a  popular  petition, 
the  people  may  sanction  or  reject  not  only  the  bulk  of 
the  laws  passed  by  the  Grand  Council  but  also  the  de- 
crees issued  by  the  legislative  and  executive  powers. 
The  exceptions  are  (i)  "measures  of  urgence  "  and  (2) 
the  items  of  the  annual  budget,  save  such  as  establish 
a  new  tax,  increase  one  in  force,  or  necessitate  an  issue 
of  bonds.  The  Referendum  cannot  be  exercised 
against  the  budget  as  a  whole,  the  Grand  Council  in- 
dicating the  sections  which  are  to  go  to  public  vote. 
In  case  of  opposition  to  any  measure,  a  petition  for 
the  Referendum  is  put  in  circulation.  To  prevent  the 
measure  from  becoming  law,  the  petition  must  receive 
the  legally  attested  signatures  of  at  least  3,500  citizens 
— about  one  in  six  of  the  cantonal  vote — within  thirty 

*  The  facts  relative  to  the  operation  of  these  two  forms  of  the  Referendum 
have  been  given  me  by  Monsieur  P.  Jamin,  of  Geneva. 


l8  THE    INITIATIVE    AND    REFERENDUM 

days  after  the  publication  of  the  proposed  measure. 
After  this  period— known  as  "the  first  delay"— the 
referendary  vote,  if  the  petition  has  been  successful, 
must  take  place  within  forty  days— "  the  second 
delay." 

The  power  of  declaring  measures  to  be  "  of  urgence  " 
lies  with  the  Grand  Council,  the  body  passing  the 
measures.  Small  wonder,  then,  that  in  its  eyes  many 
bills  are  of  too  much  and  too  immediate  importance 
to  go  to  the  people.  "  The  habit,"  protested  Grand  Coun- 
cilor M.  Putet,  on  one  occasion,  "  tends  more  and  more 
to  introduce  itself  here  of  decreeing  urgence  unne- 
cessarily, thus  taking  away  from  the  Referendum 
expenses  which  have  nothing  of  urgence.  This  is 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  constitutional  law.  Pub- 
lic necessity  alone  can  authorize  the  Grand  Council  to 
take  away  any  of  its  acts  from  the  public  control." 

Another  defect  in  the  optional  Referendum  is  that 
it  can  be  transformed  into  a  partisan  weapon — politi- 
cians being  ready,  in  Geneva,  as  in  San  Francisco,  to 
take  advantage  of  the  law  for  party  purposes.  For 
example,  the  representatives  of  a  minority  party, 
seeking  a  concession  from  a  majority  which  have  just 
passed  a  bill,  will  threaten,  if  their  demands  are  not 
granted,  to  agitate  for  the  Referendum  on  the  bill ; 
this,  though  the  minority  itself  may  favor  the  meas- 
ure, some  of  its  members,  perhaps,  having  voted  for  it. 
As  the  majority  may  be  uncertain  of  the  outcome  of  a 
struggle  at  the  polls,  it  will  probably  be  inclined  to 
make  peace  on  the  terms  dictated  by  the  minority. 


IN    SWITZERLAND.  19 

But  the  most  serious  objections  to  the  optional  form 
arise  in  connection  with  the  petitioning.  Easy  though 
it  be  for  a  rich  and  strong  party  to  bear  the  expense  of 
printing,  mailing,  and  distributing  petitions  and  circu- 
lars, in  case  of  opposition  from  the  poorer  classes 
the  cost  may  prove  an  insurmountable  obstacle.  Es-  ^ 
pecially  is  it  difficult  to  get  up  a  petition  after  sev- 
eral successive  appeals  coming  close  together,  the  con- 
stant agitation  growing  tiresome  as  well  as  financially 
burdensome.  Hence,  measures  have  sometimes  be- 
come law  simply  because  the  people  have  not  had  time 
to  recover  from  the  prolonged  agitation  in  connection 
with  preceding  propositions.  Besides,  each  meas- 
ure submitted  to  the  optional  Referendum  brings 
with  it  two  separate  waves  of  popular  discussion — one 
on  the  petition  and  one  on  the  subsequent  vote.  On 
this  point  ex-President  Numa  Droz  has  said:  "The 
agitation  which  takes  place  while  collecting  the  neces- 
sary signatures,  nearly  always  attended  with  strong 
feeling,  diverts  the  mind  from  the  object  of  the  law, 
perverts  in  advance  public  opinion,  and,  not  permitting 
later  the  calm  discussion  of  the  measure  proposed, 
establishes  an  almost  irresistible  current  toward  rejec- 
tion." Finally,  a  fact  as  notorious  in  Switzerland  as 
vote-buying  in  America,  a  large  number  of  citizens 
who  are  hostile  to  a  proposed  law  may  fear  to  record  an 
adverse  opinion  by  signing  a  Referendum  list.  Their 
signatures  may  be  seen  and  the  unveiling  of  their 
sentiments  imperil  their  means  of  livelihood. 

Zurich  furnishes  the  example  of  the  cantons  having 


20  THE    INITIATIVE    AND    REFERENDUM 

■^^  the  obligatory  Referendum.  There  the  law  provides: 
I.  That  all  laws,  decrees,  and  changes  in  the  con- 
stitution must  be  submitted  to  the  people.  2.  That 
all  decisions  of  the  Grand  Council  on  existing  law 
must  be  voted  on.  3.  That  the  Grand  Council  may 
submit  decisions  which  it  itself  proposes  to  make, 
and  that  besides  the  voting  on  the  whole  law,  the 
Council  may  ask  a  vote  on  a  special  point.  The  Grand 
Council  cannot  put  in  force  provisionally  any  law  or 
decree.  The  propositions  must  be  sent  to  the  voters 
at  least  thirty  days  before  voting.  The  regular  ref- 
erendary ballotings  take  place  twice  a  year,  spring  and 
autumn,  but  in  urgent  cases  the  Grand  Council  may 
call  for  a  special  election.  The  law  in  this  canton 
assists  the  lawmakers — the  voters — in  their  task  ; 
when  a  citizen  is  casting  his  own  vote  he  may  also 
deposit  that  of  one  or  two  relatives  and  friends,  upon 
presenting  their  electoral  card  or  a  certificate  of  au- 
thorization. 

In  effect,  the  obligatory  Referendum  makes  of  the 
entire  citizenship  a  deliberative  body  in  perpetual  ses- 
sion— this  end  being  accomplished  in  Zurich  in  the 
face  of  every  form  of  opposing  argument.  Formerly, 
its  adversaries  made  much  of  the  fact  that  it  was  ever 
calling  the  voters  to  the  urns  ;  but  this  is  now  avoided 
f^by  the  semi-annual  elections.  It  was  once  feared  that 
party  tickets  would  be  voted  without  regard  to  the 
merits  of  the  various  measures  submitted  ;  but  it  has 
been  proved  beyond  doubt  that  the  fate  of  one  propo- 
sition has  no  effect  whatever  on  that  of  another  decid- 


IN     SWITZERLAND 


ed  at  the  same  time.  Zurich  has  pronounced  on  nine- 
ty-one laws  in  twenty-eight  elections,  the  votes  indi- 
cating surprising  independence  of  judgment.  When 
the  obligatory  form  was  proposed  for  Zurich,  its  sup- 
porters declared  it  a  sure  instrument,  but  that  it  might 
prove  a  costly  one  they  were  not  prepared  by  experi- 
ment to  deny.  Now,  however,  they  have  the  data  to 
show  that  taxes — unfailing  reflexes  of  public  expendi- 
ture— are  lower  than  ever,  those  for  police,  for  example, 
being  only  about  half  those  of  optional  Geneva,  a  less 
populous  canton.  To  the  prophets  who  foresaw  end- 
less partisan  strife  in  case  the  Referendum  was  to  be 
called  in  force  on  every  measure,  Zurich  has  replied  by 
reducing  partisanship  to  its  feeblest  point,  the  people 
indifferent  to  parties  since  an  honest  vote  of  the 
whole  body  of  citizens  must  be  the  final  issue  of 
every  question. 

The  people  of  Zurich  have  proved  that  the  science 
of  politics  is  simple.  By  refusing  special  legislation, 
they  evade  a  flood  of  bills.  By  deeming  appropri- 
ations once  revised  as  in  most  part  necessary,  they  pay 
attention  chiefly  to  new  items.  By  establishing  prin- 
ciples in  law,  they  forbid  violations.  Thus  there  re- 
main no  profound  problems  of  state,  no  abstruse  ques- 
tions as  to  authorities,  no  conflict  as  to  what  is  the 
law.     Word  fresh  from  the  people  is  law. 

The  Federal  Referendum. 

The  Federal  Referendum,  first  established  by  the 
constitution  of  1874,  is  optional.    The  demand  for  it 


22  THE   INITIATIVE    AND    REFERENDUM 

must  be  made  by  30,000  citizens  or  by  eight  cantons. 
The  petition  for  a  vote  under  it  must  be  made  within 
ninety  days  after  the  publication  of  the  proposed  law. 
It  is  operative  with  respect  either  to  a  statute  as 
passed  by  the  Federal  Assembly  (Congress),  or  a  de- 
cree of  the  executive  power.  Of  149  Federal  laws  and 
decrees  subject  to  the  Referendum  passed  up  to  the 
close  of  1891  under  the  constitution  of  1874,  twenty- 
seven  were  challenged  by  the  necessary  30,000  peti- 
tioners, fifteen  being  rejected  and  twelve  accepted. 
The  Federal  Initiative  was  established  by  a  vote 
taken  on  Sunday,  July  5,  1891.  It  requires  50,000  peti- 
tioners, whose  proposal  must  be  discussed  by  the 
Federal  assembly  and  then  sent  within  a  prescribed 
delay  to  the  whole  citizenship  for  a  vote.  The  Initi- 
ative is  not  a  petition  to  the  legislative  body  ;  it  is  a 
demand  made  on  the  entire  citizenship. 

Where  the  cantonal  Referendum  is  optional,  a  suc- 
cessful petition  for  it  frequently  secures  a  rejection  of 
the  law  called  in  question.  In  1862  and  again  in  1878, 
the  canton  of  Geneva  rejected  proposed  changes  in  its 
constitution,  on  the  latter  occasion  by  a  majority  of 
6,000  in  a  vote  of  11,000.  Twice  since  1847  the  same  can- 
ton has  decided  against  an  increase  of  official  salaries, 
and  lately  it  has  declined  to  reduce  the  number  of  its 
executive  councilors  from  seven  to  five.  The  experi- 
ence of  the  Confederation  has  been  similar.  Between 
1874  and  1880  five  measures  recommended  by  the 
Federal  Executive  and  passed  by  the  Federal  Assembly 
were  vetoed  by  a  national  vote. 


IN     SWITZERLAND,  23 

Revision  of  Constitutions. 

Revision  of  a  constitution  through  the  popular 
vote  is  common.  Since  1814,  there  have  been  sixty 
revisions  by  the  people  of  cantonal  constitutions 
alone.  Geneva  asks  its  citizens  every  fifteen  years 
if  they  wish  to  revise  their  organic  law,  thus  twice  in 
a  generation  practically  determining  whether  they 
are  in  this  respect  content.  The  Federal  constitution 
may  be  revised  at  any  time.  Fifty  thousand  voters 
petitioning  for  it,  or  the  Federal  Assembly  (Congress) 
demanding  it,  the  question  is  submitted  to  the  coun- 
try. If  the  vote  is  in  the  affirmative,  the  Council  of 
States  (the  senate)  and  the  National  Council  (the 
house)  are  both  dissolved.  An  election  of  these  bodies 
takes  place  at  once;  the  Assembly,  fresh  from  the  peo- 
ple then  makes  the  required  revision  and  submits  the 
revised  constitution  to  the  country.  To  stand,  it  must 
be  supported  by  a  majority  of  the  voters  and  a  ma- 
jority of  the  twenty-two  cantons. 

Suynmary. 

To  sum  up  :  In  Switzerland,  in  this  generation,  di- 
rect legislation  has  in  many  respects  been  established 
for  the  federal  government,  while  in  so  large  a  canton 
as  Zurich,  with  nearly  340,000  inhabitants,  it  has  also 
been  made  applicable  to  every  proposed  cantonal  law, 
decree,  and  order, — the  citizens  of  that  canton  them- 
selves disposing  by  vote  of  all  questions  of  taxa- 
tion, public  finance,  executive  acts,  state  employment, 
corporation  grants,  public  works,  and  similar  opera- 


24  THE    INITIATIVE    AND    REFERENDUM. 

tions  of  government  commonly,  even  in  republican 
states,  left  to  legislators  and  other  officials.  In  every 
canton  having  the  Initiative  and  the  obligatory  Refer- 
endum, all  power  has  been  stripped  from  the  officials 
except  that  of  a  stewardship  which  is  continually  and 
minutely  supervised  and  controlled  by  the  voters 
Moreover,  it  is  possible  that  yet  a  few  years  and  the 
affairs  not  only  of  every  canton  of  Switzerland  but  of 
the  Confederation  itself  will  thus  be  taken  in  hand 
at  every  step. 

Here,  then,  is  evidence  incontrovertible  that  pure  de- 
mocracy, through  direct  legislation  by  the  citizenship,  is 
practicable — more,  is  now  practiced — in  large  commu- 
nities.    Next  as  to  its  effects,  proven  and  probable. 


THE    PUBLIC     STEWARDvSHIP     OF     SWITZER- 
LAND. 

If  it  be  conceived  that  the  fundamental  principles 
of  a  free  society  are  these  :  That  the  bond  uniting 
the  citizen  with  his  fellows  be  that  of  contract  ; 
that  rights,  including  those  in  natural  resources,  be 
equal,  and  that  each  producer  retain  the  full  product 
of  his  toil,  it  must  be  conceded  on  examination  that 
toward  this  ideal  Switzerland  has  made  further  ad- 
vances than  any  other  country,  despite  notable  points 
in  exception  and  the  imperfect  form  of  its  fed- 
eral Initiative  and  Referendum.  Before  particulars 
are  entered  into,  some  general  observations  on  this 
head  may  be  made. 

The    Political   Status    in    Switzerland. 

An  impressive  fact  in  Swiss  politics  to-day  is  its 
peace.  Especially  is  this  true  of  the  contents  and  tone 
of  the  press.  In  Italy  and  Austria,  on  the  south  and 
east,  the  newspapers  are  comparatively  few,  mostly 
feeble,  and  in  general  subservient  to  party  or  govern- 
ment ;  in  Germany,  on  the  north,  where  State  Social- 
ism is  strong,  the  radical  press  is  at  times  turbulent  and 
the  government  journals  reflect  the  despotism  they  up- 
hold ;  in  France,  on  the  west  and  southwest,  the  public 
writers  are  ever  busy  over  the  successive  unstable  cen- 


2^  1"HE     PUBLIC    STEWARDSHIP 

tral  administrations  at  Paris,  which  exercise  a  bureau- 
cratic direction  of  every  commune  in  the  land.  In  all 
these  countries,  men  rather  than  measures  are  the 
objects  of  discussion,  an  immediate  important  cam- 
paign question  inevitably  being  whether,  when  once  in 
office,  candidates  may  make  good  their  ante-election 
promises.  Thus,  on  all  sides,  over  the  border  from 
Switzerland,  political  turmoil,  with  its  rancor,  person- 
alities, false  reports,  hatreds,  and  corruptions,  is  end- 
less. But  in  Switzerland,  debate  uniformly  bears  not 
on  men  but  on  measures.  The  reasons  are  plain. 
Where  the  veto  is  possessed  by  the  people,  in  vain  may 
rogues  go  to  the  legislature.  With  few  or  no  party 
spoils,  attention  to  public  business,  and  not  to  patron- 
age or  private  privilege,  is  profitable  to  office  holders 
a*?  well  as  to  the  political  press. 

In  the  number  of  newspapers  proportionate  to  popu- 
lation, Switzerland  stands  with  the  United  States 
at  the  head  of  the  statistical  list  for  the  world.  In 
their  general  character,  Swiss  political  journals  are 
higher  than  American.  They  are  little  tempted  to 
knife  reputations,  to  start  false  campaign  issues,  to 
inflame  partisan  feeling ;  for  every  prospective  can- 
tonal measure  undergoes  sober  popiilar  discussion  the 
year  round,  with  the  certain  vote  of  the  citizenship  in 
view  in  the  cantons  having  the  Landsgemeinde  or  the 
obligatory  Referendum,  and  a  possible  vote  in  most  of 
the  other  cantons,  while  federal  measures  also  may  be 
met  with  the  federal  optional  Referendtim. 

The   purity   and   peacefulness   of    Swiss   press  and 


Of    SWITZERLAND.  if 

politics  is  due  to  the  national  development  of  to-day 
as  expressed  in  appropriate  institutions.  Of  these  in- 
stitutions the  most  efEective,  the  fundamental,  is  direct 
legislation,  accompanied  as  it  is  with  general  educa- 
tion. In  education  the  Swiss  are  preeminent  among 
nations.  Illiteracy  is  at  a  lower  percentage  than  in 
any  other  country  ;  primary  instruction  is  free  and 
compulsory  in  all  the  cantons  ;  and  that  the  higher 
education  is  general  is  shown  in  the  four  universities, 
employing  three  hundred  instructors. 

An  enlightened  people,  employing  the  ballot  freely, 
directly,  and  in  consequence  effectively — this  is  the 
true  sovereign  governing  power  in  Switzerland.  As 
to  what,  in  general  terms,  have  been  the  effects  of  this 
power  on  the  public  welfare,  as  to  how  the  Swiss  them- 
selves feel  toward  their  government,  and  as  to  what 
are  the  opinions  of  foreign  observers  on  the  recent 
changes  through  the  Initiative  and  Referendum,  some 
testimony  may  at  this  point  be  offered. 

In  the  present  year,  Mr.  W.  D.  McCracken  has  pub- 
lished in  the  "Arena"  of  Boston  his  observations  of 
Swiss  politics.  He  found,  he  says,  the  effects  of  the 
Referendum  to  be  admirable.  Jobbery  and  extrava- 
gance are  unknown,  and  politics,  as  there  is  no  money 
in  it,  has  ceased  to  be  a  trade.  The  men  elected  to 
office  are  taken  from  the  ranks  of  the  citizens,  and  are 
chosen  because  of  their  fitness  for  the  work.  The  peo- 
ple take  an  intelligent  interest  in  every  kind  of  local 
and  federal  legislation,  and  hiive  a  full  sense  of  their 
political  responsibility.     Th(^  mass   of  useless  or  evil 


28  THE     PLfBLIC    STEWARDSHIP 

laws  which  legislatures  in  other  countries  are  con- 
stantly passing  with  little  consideration,  and  which 
have  constantly  to  be  repealed,  are  in  Switzerland  not 
passed  at  all. 

In  a  study  of  the  direct  legislation  of  Switzerland, 
the  "Westminster  Review,"  February,  1888,  passed  this 
opinion  :  "  The  bulk  of  the  people  move  more  slowly 
than  their  representatives,  are  more  cautious  in  adopt- 
ing new  and  trying  legislative  experiments,  and  have 
a  tendency  to  reject  propositions  submitted  to  them 
for  the  first  time."  Further:  "  The  issue  which  is  pre- 
sented to  the  sovereign  people  is  invariably  and  neces- 
sarily reduced  to  its  simplest  expression,  and  so  placed 
before  them  as  to  be  capable  of  an  affirmative  or  nega- 
tive answer.  In  practice,  therefore,  the  discussion  of  de- 
tails is  left  to  the  representative  assemblies,  while  the 
people  express  approval  or  disapproval  of  the  general 
principle  or  policy  embraced  in  the  proposed  measure. 
Public  attention  being  confined  to  the  issue,  leaders 
are  nothing.  The  collective  wisdom  judges  of  mer- 
its." 

A.  V.  Dicey,  the  critic  of  constitutions,  writes  in  the 
"  Nation,"  October  8,  1885:  "  The  Referendum  must  be 
considered,  on  the  whole,  a  conservative  arrangement. 
It  tends  at  once  to  hinder  rapid  change  and  also  to  get 
rid  of  that  inflexibility  or  immutability  which,  in  the 
eyes  of  Englishmen  at  least,  is  a  defect  in  the  consti- 
tution of  the  United  vStates." 

A  Swiss  radical  has  written  me  as  follows  :  "  The 
development  given  to  education  during  the  last  quar- 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  29 

ter  of  a  century  will  have  without  doubt  as  a  conse- 
quence an  improved  judgment  on  the  part  of  a  large 
number  of  electors.  The  press  also  has  a  role  more 
preponderant  than  formerly.  Everybody  reads.  Cer- 
tainly the  ruling  classes  profit  largely  by  the  power  of 
the  printing  press,  but  with  the  electors  who  have  re- 
ceived some  instruction  the  capitalist  newspapers  are 
taken  with  due  allowance  for  their  sincerity.  Their 
opinion  is  not  accepted  without  inquiry.  We  see  a 
rapid  development  of  ideas,  if  not  completely  new,  at 
least  renewed  and  more  widespread.  More  or  less 
radical  reviews  and  periodicals,  in  large  number,  are 
not  without  influence,  and  their  appearance  proves 
that  great  changes  are  imminent." 

Professor  Dicey  has  contrasted  the  Referendum  with 
the  plebiscite  :  "  The  Referendum  looks  at  first  sight  like 
a  French  plebiscite,  but  no  two  institutions  can  be 
marked  by  more  essential  differences.  The  plebiscite  is 
a  revolutionary  or  at  least  abnormal  proceeding.  It  is 
not  preceded  by  debate.  The  form  and  nature  of  the 
questions  to  be  submitted  to  the  nation  are  chosen  and 
settled  by  the  men  in  power,  and  Frenchmen  are  asked 
whether  they  will  or  will  not  accept  a  given  policy. 
Rarely,  indeed,  when  it  has  been  taken,  has  the  voting 
itself  been  full  or  fair.  Deliberation  and  discussion 
are  the  requisite  conditions  for  rational  decision. 
Where  effective  opposition  is  an  impossibility,  nomi- 
nal assent  is  an  unmeaning  compliment.  These  es- 
sential characteristics,  the  lack  of  which  deprives 
a  French  plebiscite  of    all  moral    significance,   are  the 


30  THE     PUBLIC    STEWARDSHIP 

undoubted  properties  of  the  Swiss  Referendum." 
In  the  "Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,"  Paris,  August, 
1 89 1,  Louis  Wuarin,  an  interested  observer  of  wSwiss 
politics  for  many  years,  writes:  "A  people  may  indi- 
cate its  will,  not  from  a  distance,  but  near  at  hand, 
always  superintending  the  work  of  its  agents,  watching 
them,  stopping  them  if  ther*  is  reason  for  so  doing, 
constraining  them,  in  a  word,  to  carry  out  the  people's 
will  in  both  legislativ^e  and  administrative  affairs.  In 
this  form  of  government  the  representative  system  is 
reduced  to  a  minimum.  The  deliberative  bodies  re- 
semble simple  committees  charged  with  preparing 
work  for  an  elected  assembly,  and  here  the  elected 
assembly  is  replaced  by  the  people.  This  sovereign 
action  in  person  in  the  transaction  of  public  business 
may  extend  more  or  less  widely;  it  may  be  limited  to 
the  State,  or  it  may  be  extended  to  the  province  also, 
and  even  to  the  town.  To  whatever  extent  this  super- 
vision of  the  people  may  go,  one  thing  may  certainly 
be  expected,  which  is  that  the  supervision  will  become 
closer  and  closer  as  time  goes  on.  It  never  has  been 
known  that  citizens  gave  up  willingly  and  deliberately 
rights  acquired,  and  the  natural  tendency  of  citizens  is 
to' increase  their  privileges.  Switzerland  is  an  ex- 
ample of  thia  type  of  democratic  government.  .  ,  . 
There  i.:  some  reason  for  regarding  parliamentary 
government — at  least  under  its  classic  and  orthodox 
form  of  rivalry  between  two  parties,  who  watch  each 
other  closely,  in  order  to  profit  by  the  faults  of  their 
adversaries,  v/ho  dispute  with  each  other  for  power 


OK     SWITZK-RLANl).  3I 

without  the  interests  of  the  country,  in  the  ardor  of 
the  encounter,  being  always  considered — as  a  transi- 
tory form  in  the  evolution  of  democracy." 

The  spirit  of  the  Swiss  law  and  its  relation  to  the 
liberty  of  the  individual  is  shown  in  passages  of 
the  cantonal  and  federal  constitutions.  That  of  Uri 
declares:  ""Wliatevcr  the  Landsgemeinde,  within  the 
limits  of  its  competence,  ordains,  is  law  of  the  land, 
and  as  such  shall  be  obeyed,"  but  :  "  The  guiding 
principle  of  the  Landsgemeinde  shall  be  justice  and 
the  welfare  of  the  fatherland,  not  willfulness  nor  the 
power  of  the  strongest."  That  of  Zurich  :  "  The  peo- 
ple exercise  the  lawmaking  power,  with  the  assistance 
of  the  state  legislature."  That  of  the  Confederation  : 
"^Vll  the  Swiss  people  are  cqvial  before  the  law.  There 
are  in  Switzerland  no  subjects,  nor  privileges  of  place, 
birth,  persons,  or  families." 

In  these  general  notes  and  quotations  is  sketched  in 
broad  lines  the  political  environment  of  the  Swiss 
citizen  of  to-day.  The  social  mind  with  which  he 
stands  in  contact  is  politically  developed,  is  bent  on 
justice,  is  accustomed  to  look  for  safe  results  from  the 
people's  laws,  is  at  present  more  than  ever  inclined  to 
trust  direct  legislation,  and,  on  the  whole,  is  in  a 
state  of  calmness,  soberness,  tolerance,  and  political 
self-discipline. 

The  machinery  of  public  stewardship,  subject  to 
popular  guidance,  maj'-  now  be  traced,  beginning  with 
the  most  simple  form. 


32  THE     PUBLIC   "STEWARDSHIP 

Orga/iiza/io/i    of  the    Coinmunc. 

The  common  necessities  of  a  vSwiss  neighborhood, 
such  as  establishing  and  maintaining  local  roads,  po- 
lice, and  schools,  and  administering  its  common 
wealth,  bring  its  citizens  together  in  democratic  assem- 
blages.    These  arc  of  different  forms. 

One  form  of  such  assemblage,  the  basis  of  the 
superstructure  of  government,  is  the  political  com- 
mimal  meeting.  "  In  it  take  place  the  ejections,  fed- 
eral, state,  and  local  ;  it  is  the  local  iniit  of  state  gov- 
ernment and  the  residuary  legatee  of  all  powers  not 
granted  to  other  authorities.-  Its  procedure  is  ample 
and  highly  democratic.  It  meets  either  at  the  call  of 
an  executive  council  of  its  own  election,  or  in  pursu- 
ance of  adjournment,  and,  as  a  rule,  on  a  Sunday  or 
holiday.  Its  presiding  officer  is  sometimes  the  mayor, 
sometimes  a  special  chairman.  Care  is  taken  that  only 
voters  shall  sit  in  the  body  of  the  assembly,  it  being  a 
rule  in  Zurich  that  the  register  of  citizens  shall  lie  on 
the  desk  for  inspection.  Tellers  arc  appointed  by  vote 
and  must  be  persons  who  do  not  belong  to  the  village 
council,  since  that  is  the  local  cabinet  which  proposes 
measures  for  consideration..  Any  member  of  the  as- 
sembly may  offer  motions  or  amendments,  but  usually 
they  are  brought  forward  by  the  town  council,  or  at 
least  referred  to  that  body  before  being  voted  upon."* 
The  officials  of  the  commune  chosen  in  the  communal 
meeting,  are  one  chief  executive  (who  in  French  com- 
munes usually  has  two  assistants),  a  communal  coun- 

*  Vincent. 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  33 

cil,  which  legislates  on  the  lesser  matters  eoming  up 
between  communal  meetings,  and  such  minor  officials 
as  are  not  left  to  the  choice  of  the  council. 

A  second  form  of  neighborhood  assemblage  is  one 
composed  only  of  those  citizens  who  have  rights  in 
the  communal  corporate  domains  and  funds,  these 
rights  being  either  inherited  or  acquired  (sometimes 
by  purchase)  after  a  term  of  purely  political  citizen- 
ship. 

A  third  form  is  the  parish  meeting,  at  which  gather 
the  members  of  the  same  faith  in  the  commune,  or  of 
even  a  smaller  church  district.  The  Protestant,  the 
Catholic,  and  the  Jewish  are  recognized  as  State  reli- 
gions— the  Protestant  alone  in  some  cantons,  the  Cath- 
olic in  others,  both  in  several,  and  both  with  the  Jew- 
ish in  others. 

A  fourth  form  of  local  assembly  is  that  of  the  school 
district,  usually  a  subdivision  of  a  commune.  It  elects 
a  board  of  education,  votes  taxes  to  defray  school  ex- 
penses, supervises  educational  matters,  and  in  some 
districts  elects  teachers. 

Dividing  the  commune  thus  into  voting  groups,  each 
with  its  appropriate  purpose,  makes  for  justice.  He  who 
has  a  share  in  the  communal  public  wealth  (forests, 
pastoral  and  agricultural  lands,  and  perhaps  funds),  is 
not  endangered  in  this  property  through  the  votes  of 
non-participant  newcomers.  Nor  are  educational  af- 
fairs mixed  with  general  politics.  And,  though  State 
and  religion  are  not  yet  severed,  each  form  of  belief 
is  largely  left  to  itself  ;  in  some  cantons  provision  is 


34  THE     PUHLIC    STKWARDSHIP 

made  that  a  citizen's  taxes  shall  not  go  toward   the 
support  of  a  religion  to  which  he  is  opposed. 

Organization    of   Canio?i  ami   Confederation. 

In  no  canton  in  Switzerland  is  there  more  than  one 
legislative  body  :  in  none  is  there  a  senate.  The  cities 
of  vSwitzerland  have  no  mayor,  the  cantons  have  no 
governor,  and,  if  the  title  be  used  in  the  American 
sense,  the  republic  has  no  President.  Instead  of 
the  usual  single  executive  head,  the  Swiss  employ  nn 
executive  council.  Hence,  in  every  canton  a  deadlock 
in  legislation  is  impossible,  the  way  is  clear  for  all 
law  demanded  by  a  majority,  and  ncitlier  in  canton 
nor  Confederation  is  one-man  power  known. 

The  cantonal  legislature  is  the  Grand  Council.  In 
the  Landsgemeinde  cantons  and  those  having  the 
obligatory  Referendum,  it  is  little  more  than  a  super' 
visory  committee,  preparing  measures  f(jr  the  vote  of 
the  citizens  and  acting  as  a  check  on  the  cantonal  ex' 
ecutive  council.  In  the  remaining  cantons  (those  hav 
ing  the  opti(jnal  Referendum),  "  the  legislature  has 
the  power  to  spend  money  below  a  specified  limit  ;  to 
enact  laws  of  specified  kinds,  usually  not  of  general 
application  ;  and  to  elect  the  more  important  officials, 
the  amount  of  discretion  [in  the  different  cantons]  ris- 
ing gradually  till  the  complete  representative  govern- 
ment is  reached  "*  in  Freiburg,  which  resembles  one 
of  our  states.  Though  in  several  cantons  the  Grand 
Council  meets  every  two  months  for  a  few  days'  ses- 

♦  Vincent. 


C)F    SWITZERLAND.  35 

sion,  in  most  of  the  cantons  it  meets  twice  a  year.  The 
pay  of  members  ranges  from  sixty  cents  to  $1.20  per 
day.  The  lei;islativc  bodies  are  lar.oe  ;  the  ratio  in 
five  cantons  is  one  legislator  to  every  1,000  inhabitants  ; 
in  twelve  it  ranges  from  one  to  187  up  to  one  to  800,  and 
in  the  remaining  five  from  one  to  1,000  to  one  to  2,000. 
The  Landsgenieinde  cantons  iisiially  have  fifty  to  sixty 
members  ;  (Geneva,  with  20,000  voters,  has  a  hundred. 

In  six  of  the  twenty-two  cantons,  if  a  certain  num- 
ber of  voters  petition  for  it,  the  question  must  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  people  whether  or  not  the  legislature 
shall  be  recalled  and  a  new  one  elected. 

The  formation  cf  the  Swiss  Federal  Assembly  (con- 
gress), established  in  1848,  was  influenced  by  the  make- 
up of  the  American  congress.  The  lower  house  is 
elected  by  districts,  as  in  the  United  States,  the  basis 
of  representation  being  one  member  to  20,000  inhabit- 
ants, and  the  number  of  members  147.  The  term  for 
this  house  is  three  years  ;  the  pay,  four  dollars  a  day, 
during  session,  and  mileage.  The  ui)pcr  house,  the 
Council  of  Stales  (senate),  the  only  body  of  the  kind 
in  Switzerland,  is  composed  of  two  members  from  each 
canton.  Cantonal  law  governing  their  election,  the 
tenure  of  their  office  is  not  the  same  :  in  some  cantons 
they  are  elected  by  the  people,  in  others  by  the  legis- 
lature ;  their  pay  varies  ;  their  term  of  office  ranges 
from  one  to  three  years.  Their  brief  terms  and  the 
fact  that  Ihcir  more  important  functions,  such  as  the 
election  of  the  federal  executive  council,  take  place  in 
joint   session    with    the    second    chamber,    render   the 


36  THE     PUBLIC    STEWARDSHIP 

members  of  the  "upper"  house  of  less  weight  in  na- 
tional affairs  than  those  of  the  "lower." 

Szcn'ss    Executives. 

The  executive  councils  of  the  cities,  the  cantons,  and 
the  Confederation  are  all  of  one  form.  They  are  com- 
mittees, composed  of  members  of  equal  rank.  The 
number  of  members  varies.  Of  cantonal  executive 
councilors,  there  are  seven  in  eleven  of  the  cantons, 
three,  five,  and  nine  in  others,  and  eleven  in  one.  In 
addition  to  carrying  out  the  law,  the  executive  council 
usually  assists  somewhat  in  legislation,  the  members 
not  only  introducing  but  speaking  upon  measures  in 
the  legislative  body  with  which  they  are  associated, 
without,  however,  having  a  vote.  In  about  half  the 
cantons,  the  cantonal  executive  councils  are  elected  by 
the  people  ;  in  the  rest  by  the  legislative  body. 

Types  of  the  executive  councils  are  those  of  Geneva, 
city  and  canton.  The  city  executive  council  is  com- 
posed of  five  members,  elected  by  the  people  for  four 
years.  The  salary  of  its  president  is  $800  a  year  ;  that 
of  the  other  four  members,  $600.  The  cantonal  execu- 
tive has  seven  members  ;  the  salaries  are  :  the  presi- 
dent, $1,200  ;  the  rest,  $1,000.  In  both  city  and  can- 
tonal councils  each  member  is  the  head  of  an  adminis- 
trative department.  The  cantonal  executive  council 
has  the  power  to  suspend  the  deliberations  of  the  city 
executive  council  and  those  of  the  commugal  councils 
whenever  in  its  judgment  these  bodies  transcend  their 
legal  powers  or  refuse  to  conform  to  the  law.     In  case 


OF     SWITZERLA>fD.  37 

of  such  suspension,  a  meeting  of  the  cantonal  Grand 
Council  (the  legislature)  must  be  called  within  a  week, 
and  if  it  approves  of  the  action  of  the  cantonal  execu- 
tive, the  council  suspended  is  dissolved,  and  an  elec- 
tion for  another  must  be  had  within  a  month,  the 
members  of  the  body  dissolved  not  being  immediately 
eligible  for  re-election.  The  cantonal  executive  coun- 
cil may  also  revoke  the  commissions  of  communal  ex- 
ecutives (maires  and  adjoints),  who  then  cannot  im- 
mediately be  re-elected.  Check  to  the  extensive  powers 
of  the  cantonal  executive  council  lies  in  the  fact  that 
its  members  are  elected  directly  by  the  people  and 
hold  office  for  only  two  years.  But  in  cantons  having 
the  obligatory  Referendum,  Geneva's  methods,  how- 
ever advanced  in  the  eyes  of  American  republicans, 
are  not  regarded  as  strictly  democratic. 

The    Federal   Executive  Council. 

The  Swiss  nation  has  never  placed  one  man  at  its 
head.  Prior  to  1848,  executive  as  well  as  legislative 
powers  were  vested  in  the  one  house  of  the  Diet.  Un- 
der the  constitution  adopted  in  that  year,  with  which 
the  Switzerland  as  now  organized  really  began,  the 
present  form  of  the  executive  was  established. 

This  executive  is  the  Federal  Council,  a  board  of 
seven  members,  whose  term  is  three  years,  and  who 
are  elected  in  joint  session  by  the  two  houses  of  the 
Federal  Assembly  (congress).  The  presiding  officer 
of  the  council,  chosen  as  such  by  the  Federal  Assem- 
bly, is  elected   for  one   year.     He   cannot  be  his  own 

211205 


38  THE     PUBLIC    STEWARDSHIP 

successor.  While  he  is  nominally  President  of  the 
Confederation,  Swiss  treatises  on  the  subject  uniform- 
ly emphasize  the  fact  that  he  is  actually  no  more  than 
chairman  of  the  executive  council.  He  is  but  "  first 
among  his  equals  "  {^primus  inter  pares).  His  prerogatives 
— thus  to  describe  whatever  powers  fall  within  his  du- 
ties— are  no  greater  than  those  pertaining  to  the  rest 
of  the  board.  Unlike  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  he  has  no  rank  in  the  army,  no  power  of  veto, 
no  influence  with  the  judiciary  ;  he  cannot  appoint 
military  commanders,  or  independently  name  any  offi- 
cials whatever  ;  he  cannot  enforce  a  policy,  or  declare 
war,  or  make  peace,  or  conclude  a  treaty.  His  name 
is  not  a  by-word  in  his  own  country.  Not  a  few  among 
the  intelligent  Swiss  would  pause  a  moment  to  recall 
his  name  if  suddenly  asked  :  "  Who  is  President  this 
year  ?" 

The  federal  executive  council  is  elected  on  the  as- 
sembling of  the  Federal  Assembly  after  the  triennial 
election  for  members  of  the  lower  house.  All  Swiss 
citizens  are  eligible,  except  that  no  two  members  may 
be  chosen  from  the  same  canton.  The  President's  sal- 
ary is  $2,605,  that  of  the  other  members  $2,316.  AVhile 
in  office,  the  councilors  may  not  perform  any  other 
public  function,  engage  in  any  kind  of  trade,  or  prac- 
tice any  profession.  A  member  of  the  council  is  at 
the  head  of  each  department  of  the  government,  viz.: 
Foreign  Affairs,  Interior,  Justice  and  Police,  Military, 
Finances,  Commerce  and  Agriculture,  and  Post-Office 
and  Railroads.    The  constitution  directs  a  joint  trans- 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  39 

action  of  the  business  of  the  council  by  all  the  seven 
members,  with  the  injunction  that  responsibility  and 
unity  of  action  be  not  enfeebled.  The  council  appoints 
employes  and  functionaries  of  the  federal  depart- 
ments. Each  member  may  present  a  nomination  for 
any  branch,  but  names  are  usually  handed  in  by  the 
head  of  the  department  in  which  the  appointment  is 
made.  As  a  minority  of  the  board  is  uniformly  com- 
posed of  members  of  the  political  party  not,  if  it  may 
be  so  described,  "  in  power,"  purely  partisan  employ- 
ments are  difficult.  Removals  of  federal  officeholders 
in  order  to  repay  party  workers  are  unheard  of. 

The  executive  council  may  employ  experts  for  special 
tasks,  it  has  the  right  to  introduce  bills  in  the  Federal 
Assembly,  and  each  councilor  has  a  "consultative 
voice  "  in  both  houses.  In  practice,  the  council  is  sim- 
ply an  executive  commission  expressing  the  will  of 
the  assembly,  the  latter  having  even  ordered  the  re- 
vision of  regulations  drawn  up  by  the  council  for  its 
employes  at  Berne.  The  acts  of  the  asssembly  being 
liable  to  the  Referendum,  connection  with  the  will  of 
the  people  is  established.  Thus  popular  sovereignty 
finally,  and  quite  directly,  controls. 

While  both  legislators  and  executives  are  elected  for 
short  terms,  it  is  customary  for  the  same  men  to  serve 
in  public  capacities  a  long  time.  Though  the  people 
may  recall  their  servants  at  brief  intervals,  they  al- 
most invariably  ask  them  to  continue  in  service.  Em- 
ployes keep  their  places  at  their  will  during  good  be- 
havior.    This   custom    extends   to   the  higher   offices 


40  THE     PUBLIC    STEWARDSHIP 

filled  by  appointment.  One  minister  to  Paris  held  the 
position  for  twenty-three  years  ;  one  to  Rome,  for  six- 
teen. Once  elected  to  the  federal  executive  council,  a 
public  man  may  regard  his  office  as  a  permanency.  Of 
the  council  of  1889,  one  member  had  served  since  1863, 
another  since  1866.  Up  to  1879  no  seat  in  the  council 
had  ever  become  vacant  excepting  through  death  or 
resignation. 

Features  of  the  Judiciary. 

Civil  and  criminal  courts  arc  separate.  The  justice 
of  the  peace  sits  in  a  case  first  as  arbitrator,  and  not 
until  he  fails  in  that  capacity  does  he  assume  the  chair 
of  magistrate.  His  decision  is  final  in  cases  involving 
sums  up  to  a  certain  amount,  varying  in  different  lo- 
calities. Two  other  grades  of  court  are  maintained  in 
the  canton,  one  sitting  for  a  judicial  subdivision 
called  a  district,  and  a  higher  court  for  the  whole  can- 
ton. Members  of  the  district  tribunal,  consisting  of 
five  or  seven  members,  are  commonly  elected  by  the 
people,  their  terms  varying,  with  eight  years  as  the 
longest.  The  judges  of  the  cantonal  courts  as  a  rule 
are  chosen  by  the  Grand  Council  ;  their  number  seven 
to  thirteen  ;  their  terms  one  to  eight  years.  The  can- 
tonal court  is  the  court  of  last  resort.  The  Federal 
Tribunal,  which  consists  of  nine  judges  and  nine  alter- 
nates, elected  for  six  years,  tries  cases  between  canton 
and  canton  or  individual  and  canton.  For  this  bench 
practically  all  Swiss  citizens  are  eligible.  The  entire 
judicial  system  seems  designed  for  the  speedy  trial  of 
cases  and  the  discouragement  of  litieation. 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  4I 

No  court  in  Switzerland,  not  even  the  Federal  Tri- 
bunal, can  reverse  the  decisions  of  the  Federal  Assem- 
bly (congress).     This  can  be  done  only  by  the  people. 

The  election  by  the  Assembly  of  the  Federal  Tribu- 
nal— as  well  as  of  the  federal  executive — has  met  with 
strong  opposition.  Before  long  both  bodies  may  be 
elected  by  popular  vote. 

Swiss  jurors  are  elected  by  the  people  and  hold  office 
six  years.  In  French  and  German  Switzerland,  there 
is  one  such  juror  for  every  thousand  inhabitants,  and 
in  Italian  vSwitzerland  one  for  every  five  hundred.  To 
a  Swiss  it  would  seem  as  odd  to  select  jurors  haphaz- 
ard as  to  so  select  judges. 

In  most  of  the  manufacturing  cantons,  councils  of 
prud'hommes  are  elected  by  the  people.  The  various 
industries  and  professions  are  classified  in  ten  groups, 
each  of  which  chooses  a  council  of  prud'hommes  com- 
posed of  fifteen  employers  and  fifteen  employes.  Each 
council  is  divided  into  a  bureau  of  conciliation,  a  tri- 
bunal of  prud'hommes,  and  a  chamber  of  appeals,  cases 
going  on  appeal  from  one  board  to  another  in  the 
order  named.  These  councils  have  jurisdiction  only 
in  the  trades,  their  sessions  relating  chiefly  to  pay- 
ment for  services  and  contracts  of  apprenticeship. 

A  Deinocratic  Army. 

In  surveying  the  simple  political  machinery  of 
Switzerland,  the  inquirer,  remembering  the  fate  of  so 
many  republics,  may  be  led  to  ask  as  to  the  danger  of 
its  overthrow  by  the  Swiss  army.     The  reply  is  that, 


42 


THE     PUBLIC    STEWARDSHIP 


here,  again,  so  far  as  may  be  seen,  the  nation  has 
wisely  planned  safeguards.  To  show  how,  and  as  the 
Swiss  army  differs  widely  from  all  others  in  its  organ- 
ization, some  particulars  regarding  it  are  here  perti- 
nent. 

The  more  important  features  of  the  Swiss  military 
system,  established  in  1874,  are  as  follows  :  There  is 
no  Commander-in-chief  in  time  of  peace.  There  is  no 
aristocracy  of  officers.  Pensions  are  fixed  by  law. 
There  is  no  substitute  system.  Every  citizen  not  dis- 
abled is  liable  either  to  military  duty  or  to  duties  es- 
sential in  time  of  war,  such  as  service  in  the  postal  de- 
partment, the  hospitals,  or  the  prisons.  Citizens  en- 
tirely disabled  and  unfit  for  the  ranks  or  semi-military 
service  are  taxed  to  a  certain  per  centage  of  their 
property  or  income.  No  canton  is  allowed  to  maintain 
more  than  three  hundred  men  under  arms  without 
federal  authority. 

Though  there  is  no  standing  army,  every  man  in  the 
country  between  the  ages  of  seventeen  and  fifty  is  en- 
rolled and  subject  annually  either  to  drill  or  inspec- 
tion. On  January  i,  1891,  the  active  army,  comprising 
all  unexempt  citizens  between  twenty  and  thirty-two 
years,  contained  126,444  officers  and  men  ;  the  first  re- 
serve, thirty-three  to  forty-four  years,  80,795  '■>  the  sec- 
ond reserve,  all  others,  268,715  ;  total,  475,955.  The 
Confederation  can  place  in  the  field  in  less  than  a  week 
more  than  200,000  men,  armed,  uniformed,  drilled,  and 
every  man  in  his  place. 

On  attaining  his  twentieth  year,  every  Swiss  youth 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  43 

is  summoned  before  a  board  of  physicians  and  mili- 
tary officers  for  physical  and  mental  examination. 
Those  adjudged  unfit  for  service  are  exempted — tem- 
porarily if  the  infirmity  may  pass  away,  for  life  if  it 
be  permanent.  The  tax  on  exempted  men  is  $1.20  plus 
thirty  cents  per  year  for  $200  of  their  wealth  or  $20  of 
their  income,  until  the  age  of  thirty-two  years,  and 
half  these  sums  until  the  age  of  forty-four.  On  being 
enrolled  in  his  canton,  the  soldier  is  allowed  to  return 
home.  He  takes  with  him  his  arms  and  accoutre- 
ments, and  thenceforth  is  responsible  for  them.  He 
is  ever  ready  for  service  at  short  call.  Intrusting  the 
soldiery  with  their  outfit  reduces  the  number  of  arm- 
mories,  thus  cutting  down  public  expenditures  and 
preventing  loss  through  capture  in  case  of  sudden  in- 
vasion by  an  enemy. 

In  the  vSwiss  army  are  eight  divisions  of  the  active 
force  and  eight  of  the  reserve,  adjoining  cantons  unit- 
ing to  form  a  division.  Each  summer  one  division  is 
called  out  for  the  grand  manoeuvres,  all  being  brought 
out  once  in  the  course  of  eight  years. 

In  case  of  war  a  General  is  named  by  the  Federal 
Assembly.  At  the  head  of  the  army  in  time  of  peace 
is  a  staff,  composed  of  three  colonels,  sixteen  lieuten- 
ant colonels  and  majors,  and  thirty-five  captains. 

The  cost  of  maintaining  the  army  is  small,  on  an 
average  $3,500,000  a  year.  Officers  and  soldiers  alike 
receive  pay  only  while  in  service.  If  wounded  or  taken 
ill  on  duty,  a  man  in  the  ranks  may  draw  up  to  $240 
a  year  pension    while  suffering    disability.     Lesser 


44  THE     PUBLIC    STEWARDSHIP 

sums  may  be  drawn  by  the  family  of  a  soldier  who 
loses  his  life  in  the  service. 

At  Thounc,  near  Berne,  is  the  federal  military  acad- 
emy. It  is  open  to  any  Swiss  youth  who  can  support 
himself  while  there.  Not  even  the  President  of  the 
Confederation  may  in  time  of  peace  propose  any  man 
for  a  commission  who  has  not  studied  at  the  Thoune 
academy.  A  place  as  commissioned  officer  is  not 
sought  for  as  a  fat  office  nor  as  a  ready  stepping-stone 
to  social  position.  As  a  rule  only  such  youths  study 
at  Thoune  as  are  inclined  to  the  profession  of  arms. 
Promotion  is  according  to  both  merit  and  seniority. 
Officers  up  to  the  rank  of  major  are  commissioned  by 
the  cantons,  the  higher  grades  by  the  Confederation. 

In  Switzerland,  then,  the  military  leader  appears 
only  when  needed,  in  war  ;  he  cannot  for  years  after- 
ward be  rewarded  by  the  presidency  ;  pensions  cannot 
be  made  perquisites  of  party  ;  the  army,  /.  e.  the  whole 
effective  force  of  the  nation,  will  support,  and  not  at- 
tempt to  subvert,  the  republic. 

The    True   Social   Contract. 

The  individual  enters  into  social  life  in  Switzerland 
with  the  constitutional  guarantee  that  he  shall  be  in- 
dependent in  all  things  excepting  wherein  he  has  in- 
extricable common  interests  with  his  fellows. 

Each  neighborhood  aims,  as  far  as  possible,  to  gov- 
ern itself,  so  subdividing  its  functions  that  even  in 
these  no  interference  with  the  individual  shall  occur 


OF     SWITZERLAND.  4^ 

that  may  be  avoided.  Adjoining-  neighljorhoods  next 
form  a  district  and  as  such  control  certain  common  in- 
terests. Then  a  g-reater  group,  of  several  districts, 
unite  in  the  canton.  Finally  takes  place  the  federation 
of  all  the  cantons.  At  each  of  these  necessary  steps 
in  organizing  societ)-,  the  avowed  intention  of  the 
masses  concerned  is  that  the  primary  rights  of  the  in- 
dividual shall  be  preserved.  vSays  the  "Westminster 
Review  ":  "  The  essential  characteristic  of  the  federal 
government  is  that  each  of  the  states  which  combine 
to  form  a  union  retains  in  its  own  hands,  in  its  indi- 
vidual capacity,  the  management  of  its  own  affairs, 
while  authority  over  matters  common  to  all  is  exer- 
cised by  the  states  in  their  collective  and  corporate  ca- 
pacity." And  what'  is  thus  true  of  the  Confederation 
with  respect  to  the  independence  of  the  canton  is 
equally  true  of  canton  with  respect  to  the  commune, 
and  of  the  commune  with  respect  to  the  individual. 
No  departure  from  home  rule,  no  privileged  individ- 
uals or  corporations,  no  special  legislation,  no  courts 
with  powers  above  the  people's  will,  no  legal  discrimi- 
nations whatever — such  their  aim,  and  in  general  their 
successful  aim,  the  Swiss  lead  all  other  nations  in 
leaving  to  the  individual  his  original  sovereignty. 
Wherever  this  is  not  the  fact,  wherever  purpose  fails 
fulfillment,  the  cause  lies  in  long-standing  complica- 
tions which  as  yet  have  not  yielded  to  the  newer 
democratic  methods.  On  the  side  of  official  organi- 
zation, one  historical  abuse  after  another  has  been  at- 
tacked, resulting  in  the  simple,  smooth-running,  neces- 


46  THE    PUBLIC    STEWARDSHIP. 

sary  local  and  national  stewardships  described.  On 
the  side  of  economic  social  organization,  a  concomi- 
tant of  the  political  system,  the  progress  in  Switzerland 
has  been  remarkable.  As  is  to  be  seen  in  the  follow- 
ing chapter,  in  the  management  of  natural  monopolies 
the  democratic  Swiss,  beyond  any  other  people,  have 
attained  justice,  and  consequently  have  distributed 
much  of  their  increasing  wealth  with  an  approach  to 
equity  ;  while  in  the  system  of  communal  lands  prac- 
ticed in  the  Landsgemeinde  cantons  is  found  an  ex- 
ample to  land  reformers  throughout  the  world. 


THE  COMMON  WEALTH    OF  SWITZERLAND. 

Unless  producers  may  exercise  equal  right  of  access 
to  land,  the  first  material  for  all  production,  they 
stand  unequal  before  the  law  ;  and  if  one  man,  through 
legal  privilege  given  to  another,  is  deprived  of  any 
part  of  the  product  of  his  labor,  justice  does  not  reign. 
The  economic  question,  then,  under  any  government, 
relates  to  legal  privilege — to  monopoly,  either  of  the 
land  or  its  products. 

With  the  non-existence  of  the  exclusive  enjoyment 
of  monopolies  by  some  men — monopolies  in  the  land, 
in  money-issuing,  in  common  public  works — each  pro- 
ducer would  retain  his  entire  product  excepting  his 
taxes.  This  end  secured,  there  would  remain  no  polit- 
ico-economic problem  excepting  that  of  taxation. 

Of  recent  years  the  Swiss  have  had  notable  success 
in  preventing  from  falling  into  private  hands  certain 
monopolies  that  in  other  countries  take  from  the 
many  to  enrich  a  few.  Continuing  to  act  on  the  princi- 
ples observed,  they  must  in  time  establish  not  only 
equal  rights  in  the  land  but  the  full  economic  as  well 
as  political  sovereignty  of  the  individual. 

Land   and   Climate. 

Glance  at  the  theatre  of  the  labor  of  this  people. 
Switzerland,  with  about  16,000  square  miles,  equals  in 


^8  THE    COMMON    WEALTH 

area  one-third  of   New  York.     Of  its  territory,  30  per 

cent waterbeds,  glaciers,   and    sterile    mountains — is 

unproductive.     Forests  cover   18  per  cent.     Thus  but 
half  the  country  is  good  for  crops  or  pasture.    The  va- 
rious altitudes,  in  which  the  climate  ranges  from  that 
of  Virginia  to  that  of  Labrador,  are   divided  by  agri- 
culturists into  three  zones.    The  lower  zone,  including 
all  lands  below  a  level  of  2,500   feet    above  the    sea, 
touches,  at   Lake   Maggiore,  in  the   Italian   canton  of 
Ticino,  its  lowest  point,  643  feet  above  the  sea.   In  this 
zone  are  cultivated  wheat,  barley,  and   other  grains, 
large  crops  of  fruit,  and  the  vine,  the   latter  an   abun- 
dant source  of  profit.     The  second  zone,  within  which 
lies  the  larger  part  of  the  country,  includes  the  lower 
mountain  ranges.     Its  altitudes  are  from  2,500  to  5,000 
feet,    its   chief  growth   great  forests   of  beech,  larch, 
and  pine.     Above  this  rises  the  Alpine  zone,  upon  the 
steep   slopes  of  which  are  rich  pastures,  the  highest 
touching  10,000  feet,  though  they  commonly  reach  but 
8,000,  where  vegetation  becomes  sparse  and  snow  and 
glaciers  begin.   In  these  mountains,  a  million  and  a  half 
cattle,  horses,  sheep,  and  goats  are  fed  annually.     In 
all,  Switzerland  is  not  fertile,  but  rocky,  mountainous, 
and  much  of  it  the  greater  part  of  the  year  snow-covered. 
Whatever  the  individual  qualities  of  the  Swiss,  their 
political  arrangements  have  had   a  large  influence  in 
promoting  the  national  well-being.    This  becomes  evi- 
dent  with   investigation.      Observe     how   they   have 
placed  under  public  control  monopolies  that  in  other 
countries  breed  millionaires  : — 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  49 

Railroads. 

One  bureau  of  the  Post-Office  department  exercises 
federal  supervision  over  the  railroads,  a  second  man- 
ages the  mail  and  express  services,  and  a  third  those 
of  the  telegraph  and  telephone. 

Of  railroads,  there  are  nearly  2,000  miles.  Their 
construction  and  operation  have  been  left  to  private 
enterprise,  but  from  the  first  the  Confederation  has 
asserted  a  control  over  them  that  has  stopped  short 
only  of  management.  Hence  there  are  no  duplicated 
lines,  no  discriminations  in  rates,  no  cities  at  the  mer- 
cy of  railroad  corporations,  no  industries  favored  by 
railroad  managers  and  none  destroyed.  The  govern- 
ment prescribes  the  location  of  a  proposed  line,  the 
time  within  which  it  must  be  built,  the  maximum  tar- 
iffs for  freight  and  passengers,  the  minimum  number 
of  trains  to  be  run,  and  the  conditions  of  purchase  in 
case  the  State  at  any  time  should  decide  to  assume  pos- 
session. Provision  is  made  that  when  railway  earn- 
ings exceed  a  certain  ratio  to  capital  invested,  the  sur- 
plus shall  be  subjected  to  a  proportionately  increased 
tax.  Engineers  of  the  Post-Office  department  super- 
intend the  construction  and  repair  of  the  railroads, 
and  post-office  inspectors  examine  and  pass  upon  the 
time-tables,  tariffs,  agreements,  and  methods  of  the 
companies.  Hence  falsification  of  reports  is  prevent- 
ed, stock  watering  and  exchange  gambling  are  ham- 
pered, and  "  wrecking,"  as  practiced  in  the  United 
States,  is  unknown. 

Owing  to  tunnels,  cuts,  and  bridges,  the  construe- 


56  THE    COMMON    WEALTH 

tion  of  the  vSwiss  railway  S3^stem  has  been  costly ; 
Mulhall's  statistics  give  Switzerland  a  higher  ratio  of 
railway  capital  to  population  than  any  other  country 
in  Europe.  Yet  the  service  is  cheap,  passenger  tariffs 
being  considerably  less  than  in  France  and  Great 
Britain,  and,  about  the  same  as  in  Gerr»any,  within  a 
shade  as  low  as  the  lowest  in  Europe. 

Differing  from  the  narrow  compartment  railway 
carriages  of  other  European  countries,  the  passenger 
cars  of  Switzerland  are  generally  built  on  the  Ameri- 
can plan,  so  that  the  traveler  is  enabled  to  view  the 
scenery  ahead,  behind,  and  on  both  sides.  For  circular 
tours,  the  companies  make  a  reduction  of  25  per  cent 
on  the  regular  fare.  At  the  Jarger  stations  are  inter- 
preters who  speak  English.  Unlike  the  service  in 
other  Continental  countries,  third  class  cars  are  at- 
tached to  all  trains,  even  the  fastest.  On  the  whole,  des- 
pite the  highest  railroad  investment  per  head  in  Europe, 
Switzerland  has  the  best  of  railway  service  at  the 
lowest  of  rates,  the  result  of  centralized  State  control 
coupled  with  free  industry  under  the  limitations  of 
that  control.  In  the  ripest  judgment  of  the  nation  up 
to  the  present,  this  system  yields  better  results  than 
any  other :  by  a  referendary  vote  taken  in  Decem- 
ber, 1 89 1,  the  people  refused  to  change  it  for  State 
ownership  of  railroads. 

Mails,  the    Telegraph,  the  Telephone,   a?id  Highways. 

The  Swiss  postal  service  is  a  model  in  completeness, 
cheapness,  and  dispatch.     Switzerland  has  800   post- 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  5 1 

offices  and  2,000  depots  where  stamps  are  sold  and  let- 
ters and  packages  received.  Postal  cards  cost  i  cent ; 
to  foreign  countries,  2  cents,  and  with  return  flap,  4. 
For  half-ounce  letters,  within  a  circuit  of  six  miles, 
the  cost  is  i  cent  ;  for  letters  for  all  Switzerland,  up 
to  half  a  pound,  2  cents  ;  for  printed  matter,  one 
ounce,  two-fifths  of  a  cent ;  to  half  a  pound,  i  cent  ;  one 
pound,  2  cents  ;  for  samples  of  goods,  to  half  a  pound, 
I  cent  ;  one  pound,  2  cents. 

There  are  1,350  telegraph  offices  open  to  the  public. 
A  dispatch  for  any  point  in  vSwitzerland  costs  6  cents 
for  the  stamp  and  i  cent  for  every  two  words. 

The  Swiss  Post-Office  department  has  many  surprises 
in  store  for  the  American  tourist.  Mail  delivery  every- 
where free,  even  in  a  rural  commune  remote  from  the 
railroad  he  may  see  a  postman  on  his  rounds  two  or 
three  times  a  day.  When  money  is  sent  him  b}'  postal 
order,  the  letter-carrier  puts  the  cash  in  his  hands.  If 
he  wishes  to  send  a  package  by  express,  the  carrier 
takes  the  order,  which  soon  brings  to  him  the  postal 
express  wagon.  A  package  sent  him  is  delivered  in 
his  room.  At  any  post-office  he  may  subscribe  for  any 
Swiss  publication  or  for  any  of  a  list  of  several 
thousand  of  the  world's  leading  periodicals.  When 
roving  in  the  higher  Alps,  in  regions  where  the  roads 
are  but  bridle  paths,  the  tourist  may  find  in  the  most 
unpretending  hotel  a  telegraph  office.  If  he  follows 
the  wagon  roads,  he  may  send  his  hand  baggage  ahead 
by  the  stage  coach  and  at  the  end  of  his  day's  walk 
find  it  at  his  destination. 


52  THE    COiMMON    WEALTH 

There  are  three  hundred  stage  routes  in  Switzer- 
land, all  operated  under  the  Post-Office  department, 
private  posting  on  regular  routes  being  prohibited. 
The  department  owns  the  coaches;  contractors  own  the 
horses  and  other  material.  From  most  of  the  termini, 
at  least  two  coaches  arrive  and  depart  daily.  Passen- 
gers, first  and  second  class,  are  assigned  to  seats  in 
the  order  of  purchasing  tickets.  Every  passenger  in 
waiting  at  a  stage  office  on  the  departure  of  a  coach 
must  by  law  be  provided  with  conveyance,  several 
supplementary  vehicles  often  being  thus  called  into 
employ.  A  postal  coach  may  be  ordered  at  an  hour's 
notice,  even  on  the  mountain  routes.  Coach  fare  is 
6  cents  a  mile  ;  in  the  Alps,  8.  Each  passenger  is  al- 
lowed thirty-three  pounds  of  baggage  ;  in  the  Alps, 
twenty-two.  Return  tickets  are  sold  at  a  reduction  of 
lo  per  cent. 

The  cantonal  wagon  roads  of  wSwitzerland  are  une- 
qualed  by  any  of  the  highways  in  America.  They  are 
built  by  engineers,  are  solidly  made,  are  macadamized, 
and  are  kept  in  excellent  repair.  The  Alpine  post 
roads  are  mostly  cut  in  or  built  out  upon  the  steep 
mountain  sides.  Not  infrequently,  they  are  tunneled 
through  the  massive  rocky  ribs  of  great  peaks.  Yet 
their  gradient  is  so  easy  that  the  average  tourist  walks 
twenty-five  miles  over  them  in  a  short  day.  The  en- 
gineering feats  on  these  roads  are  in  many  cases  nota- 
ble. On  the  Simplon  route  a  wide  mountain  stream 
rushes  down  over  a  post-road  tunnel,  and  from  within 
the  traveler  may  see  through  the  gallery-like  windows 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  53 

the  cataract  pouring  close  beside  him  down  into  the 
valley.  On  the  route  that  passes  the  great  Rhone  gla- 
cier, the  road  ascends  a  high  mountain  in  a  zigzag 
that,  as  viewed  in  front  from  the  valley  below,  looks 
like  a  colossal  corkscrew.  This  road  is  as  well  kept  as 
the  better  turnpikes  of  New  York,  teams  moving  at  a 
fast  walk  in  ascending  and  at  a  trot  in  descending, 
though  the  region  is  barren  and  uninhabitable,  and  win- 
try nine  months  in  the  year.  These  two  examples, 
however,  give  but  a  faint  idea  of  the  vast  number  of 
similar  works.  The  federal  treasury  appropriates  to 
several  of  the  Alpine  cantons,  in  addition  to  the  sums 
so  expended  by  the  local  administrations, from  $16,000  to 
$40,000  a  year  for  the  maintenance  of  their  post  roads. 
With  lower  postage  than  any  other  country,  the  net 
earnings  of  the  Swiss  postal  system  for  1889  were 
$560,000.  This,  however,  is  but  a  fraction  of  the  real 
gain  to  the  nation  from  this  source.  Without  their 
roads,  railroads,  stage  lines,  and  mail  facilities,  their 
hotels,  numbering  more  than  one  thousand  and  as  a 
rule  excellently  managed,  could  not  be  maintained 
for  the  summer  rush  of  foreign  tourists,  worth  to  the 
country  many  million  dollars  a  year.  The  finest  Al- 
pine scenery  is  by  no  means  confined  to  Swiss  bound- 
aries, but  within  these  line^  the  comforts  of  travel  far 
surpass  those  in  the  neighboring  mountainous  coun- 
tries. In  Savoy,  Lombardy,  and  the  Austrian  Tyrol, 
the  traveler  must  be  prepared  to  put  up  with  compara- 
tively antiquated  methods  and  primitive  accommoda- 
tions. 


54 


THE    COMMON    WEALTH 


Yet,  previous  to  1849,  each  Swiss  canton  had  its  own 
postal  arrangements,  some  cantons  farming  out  their 
systems  either  to  other  cantons  or  to  individuals.  In 
each  canton  the  services,  managed  irrespective  of  fed- 
eral needs,  was  costly,  and  Swiss  postal  systems,  as 
compared  with  those  of  France  and  Germany,  were 
notoriously  behindhand. 

Banking. 

While  the  Confederation  coins  the  metallic  money 
current  in  the  country,  it  is  forbidden  by  the  consti- 
tution to  monopolize  the  issue  of  notes  or  guarantee 
the  circulation  of  any  bank.  For  the  past  ten  years, 
however,  it  has  controlled  the  circulation  of  the  banks, 
the  amount  of  their  reserve  fund,  and  the  publication 
of  their  reports.  The  latter  may  be  called  for  at  the 
discretion  of  the  executive  council,  in  fact  even  daily. 

There  are  thirty-five  banks  of  issue  doing  business 
under  cantonal  law.  Of  these,  eighteen,  known  as 
cantonal  banks,  either  are  managed  or  have  their  notes 
guaranteed  by  the  respective  cantons.  Thus,  while 
banking  and  money  -  issuing  are  free,  the  cantonal 
banks  insure  a  requisite  note  circulation,  minimizing 
the  rate  of  interest  and  reducing  its  fluctuations.  The 
setting  up  of  cantonal  banks,  in  order  to  withdraw  priv- 
ileges from  licensed  banks,  was  one  of  the  public  ques- 
tions agitated  by  social  reformers  and  decided  in  sev- 
eral of  the  cantons  by  direct  legislation. 

Taxes. 
The  framework  of  this  little  volume  does  not  admit 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  55 

SO  much  as  an  outline  of  the  various  methods  of  taxa- 
tion practiced  in  Switzerland.  As  in  all  countries,  they 
are  complex.  But  certain  significant  results  of  direct 
legislation  are  to  be  pointed  out.  In  all  the  cantons 
there  is  a  strong  tendency  to  raise  revenue  from  direct, 
as  opposed  to  indirect,  taxes,  and  from  progressive  tax- 
ation according  to  fortune.  The  following,  from  an  edi- 
torial in  the  "Christian  Union,"  February  12,  1891,  so 
justly  and  briefly  puts  the  facts  that  I  prefer  printing 
it  rather  than  words  of  my  own,  which  might  lie  under 
suspicion  of  being  tinged  with  the  views  of  a  radical  : 
"With  the  democratic  revolution  of  1830  the  people 
demanded  that  direct  taxation  should  be  introduced, 
and  since  the  greater  revolution  of  1848  they  have 
been  steadily  replacing  the  indirect  taxes  upon  neces- 
sities by  direct  taxes  upon  wealth.  In  Zurich,  for  ex- 
ample— where  in  the  first  part  of  this  century  there 
were  no  direct  taxes — in  1832  indirect  taxation  sup- 
plied four-fifths  of  the  local  revenue  ;  to-day  it  supplies 
but  one-seventeenth.  The  canton  raises  thirty-two 
francs  per  capita  by  direct  taxation  where  it  raises  but 
two  by  indirect  taxation.  This  change  has  accom- 
panied the  transformation  of  Switzerland  from  a 
nominal  to  a  real  democracy.  By  the  use  of  direct 
taxation,  where  every  man  knows  just  how  much  he 
pays,  and  by  the  use  of  the  Referendum,  where  the 
sense  of  justice  of  the  entire  public  is  expressed  as  to 
how  tax  burdens  should  be  distributed,  Switzerland 
has  developed  a  system  by  which  the  division  of  society 
into  the  harmfully  rich  and  wretchedly  poor  has  been 


^6  THE    COMMON    WEALTH 

checked,  if  not  prevented.  In  the  most  advanced  can- 
tons, as  has  been  brought  out  by  Professor  Cohn  in 
the  '  Political  Science  Quarterly,'  the  taxes,  both  on 
incomes  and  on  property,  are  progressive.  In  each 
case  a  certain  minimum  is  exempted.  In  the  case  of 
incomes,  the  progression  is  such  that  the  largest  in- 
comes pay  a  rate  five  times  as  heavy  as  the  very  mod- 
erate ones  ;  while  in  the  case  of  property,  the  largest 
fortunes  pay  twice  as  much  as  the  smallest.  The  tax 
upon  inheritances  has  been  most  strongly  developed. 
In  the  last  thirty  years  it  has  been  increased  sixfold. 
The  larger  the  amount  of  property,  and  the  more  dis- 
tant the  relative  to  whom  it  has  been  bequeathed, 
the  heavier  the  rate  is  made.  It  is  sometimes  as  high 
as  20  per  cent.  .Speaking  upon  this  point,  the  New 
York  '  Evening  Post '  correspondent  says  :  '  Evidently 
there  are  few  countries  that  do  so  much  to  discourage 
the  accumulation  of  vast  fortunes  ;  and,  in  fact,  Swit- 
zerland has  few  paupers  and  few  millionaires.' " 

Until  1848,  each  canton  imposed  cantonal  tariff 
duties  on  imported  goods,  and,  as  is  yet  the  case  in 
most  continental  countries,  until  a  few  years  ago  the 
larger  cities  imposed  local  import  duties  {octrois).  But 
the  octroi  is  now  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  save  in  one 
respect  the  cantons  have  abolished  cantonal  tariffs. 
The  mining  of  salt  being  under  federal  control,  and 
the  retail  price  regulated  by  each  canton  for  itself, 
supervision  of  imports  of  salt  into  each  canton  be- 
comes necessary 

The  "Statesmen's  Year  Book"  (1891)  gives  the  debts 


OF    SWITZERLAND. 


57 


of  all  the  cantons  of  wSwitzerland  as  inconsiderable, 
while  the  federal  debt,  in  1S90  but  eleven  million  dol- 
lors,  is  less  than  half  the  federal  assets  in  stocks 
and  lands.  In  summing-  up  at  the  close  of  his  chapter 
on  "State  and  Local  Finance,"  Prof.  Vincent  says: 
"  On  the  whole,  the  expenditures  of  Switzerland  are 
much  less  than  those  of  neighboring  states.  This  may 
be  ascribed  in  part  to  the  lighter  military  burden,  in 
part  to  the  fact  that  no  monarchs  and  courts  must  be 
supported,  and  further,  to  the  inclinations  of  the  Swiss 
people  for  practical  rather  than  ornamental  matters." 
And  he  might  pertinently  have  added,  "and  to  the  fact 
that  the  citizens  themselves  hold  the  public  purse- 
strings." 

Lii/iitations  to   Siviss   Freedom. 

Certain  stumbling  blocks  stand  in  the  way  of  sweep- 
ing claims  as  to  the  freedom  enjoyed  in  Switzerland. 
One  is  asked:  What  as  to  the  suppression  of  the  Jesuits 
and  the  Salvation  Army  ?  As  to  the  salt  and  alcohol 
monopolies  of  the  State  ?  As  to  the  federal  protective 
tariff  ?  What  as  to  the  political  war  two  years  ago  in 
Ticino  ? 

Two  mutually  supporting  forms  of  reply  are  to  be 
made  to  these  queries.  One  relates  to  the  immediate 
circumstances  under  which  each  of  the  departures 
from  freedom  cited  have  taken  place  ;  the  other  to 
historical  conditions  affecting  the  development  of  the 
Swiss  democracy  of  to-day. 

As  to  the  first  of  these  forms  of  reply : 


58  THE    COMMON    WEALTH 

In  the  decade  previous  to  1848  occurred  the  religious 
disturbances  that  ended  in  the  war  of  the  Sonderbund 
(secession),  when  several  Catholic  cantons  endeavored 
to  dissolve  the  loose  federal  pact  under  which  Switzer- 
land then  existed.  On  the  defeat  of  the  secessionists, 
the  movement  for  a  closer  federation — for  a  Confed- 
eration— received  an  impetus,  which  resulted  in  the 
present  union.  By  an  article  of  the  constitution  then 
substituted  for  the  pact,  convents  were  abolished  and 
the  order  of  the  Jesuits  forbidden  on  Swiss  soil.  Both 
had  endangered  the  State.  Mild,  indeed,  is  this  proscrip- 
tion when  compared  with  the  effects  of  the  religious 
hatreds  fostered  for  centuries  between  territories  now 
Swiss  cantons.  In  the  judgment  of  the  majority  this 
restriction  of  the  freedom  of  a  part  is  essential  to  that 
enjoyed  by  the  nation  as  a  whole. 

The  exercises  of  the  Salvation  Army  fell  imder  the 
laws  of  the  municipalities  against  nuisances.  The  final 
judicial  decision  in  this  case  was  in  effect  that  while 
persons  of  every  religious  belief  are  free  to  worship  in 
Switzerland,  none  in  doing  so  are  free  seriously  to 
annoy  their  neighbors. 

The  present  federal  protective  tariff  was  imposed 
just  after  the  federal  Referendum  (optional)  had  been 
called  into  operation  on  several  other  propositions, 
and,  the  public  mind  weary  of  political  agitation,  de- 
mand for  the  popular  vote  on  the  question  was  not 
made.  The  Geneva  correspondent  of  the  Paris 
"Temps"  wrote  of  the  tariff  when  it  was  adopted  in 
1884:     "This  tariff  has  sacrificed  the  interest  of  the 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  59 

whole  of  the  consumers  to  temporary  coalitions  of  pri- 
vate interests.  It  would  have  been  shattered  like  a 
card  house  had  it  been  submitted  to  the  vote  of  the 
people."  In  imposing  the  tariff,  the  Federal  Assembly 
in  self-defense  followed  the  action  of  other  Continen- 
tal governments.  Many  raw  materials  necessary  to 
manufactures  were,  however,  exempted  and  the  burden 
of  the  duties  placed  on  luxuries.  As  it  is,  Switzerland, 
without  being  able  to  obtain  a  pound  of  cotton  except 
by  transit  through  regions  of  hostile  tariffs,  maintains 
a  cotton  manufacturing  industry  holding  a  place 
among  the  foremost  of  the  Continent,  while  her  total 
trade  per  head  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  coun- 
try in  Europe. 

The  days  of  the  federal  salt  monopoly  are  num- 
bered. The  criticisms  it  has  of  late  evoked  portend 
its  end.     A  popular  vote  may  finish  it  at  any  time. 

The  State  monopoly  of  alcohol,  begun  in  1887,  is  as 
yet  an  experiment.  Financially,  it  has  thus  far  been 
moderately  successful,  though  smuggling  and  other 
evasions  of  the  law  go  on  on  a  large  scale.  The  na- 
tion, yet  in  doubt,  is  awaiting  developments.  With  a 
reaction,  confidently  predicted  by  many,  against  high 
tariffs  and  State  interference  with  trade,  the  monopoly 
may  be  abolished. 

The  little  war  in  Ticino  was  the  expiring  spasm  of 
the  ultramontanes,  desperately  struggling  against  the 
advance  of  the  Liberals  armed  with  the  Referendum 
The  reactionaries  were  suppressed,  and  the  people's 
law  made  to  prevail    The  story,  now  to  be  read  in  the 


6o  THE    COMMON    WEALTH 

annual  reference  books,  is  a  chronicle  that  cannot  fail 
to  win  approval  for  democracy  as  an  agency  of  peace 
and  justice. 

The  explanations  conveyed  in  these  facts  imply  yet 
a  deeper  cause  for  the  lapses  from  freedom  in  ques- 
tion. This  cause  is  that  Switzerland,  in  many  cantons 
for  centuries  undemocratic,  is  not  yet  entirely  demo- 
cratic. Law  cannot  rise  higher  than  its  source.  The 
last  step  in  democracy  places  all  lawmaking  power 
directly  and  fully  in  the  hands  of  the  majority,  but  if 
by  the  majority  justice  is  dimly  seen,  justice  will  be 
imperfectly  done.  No  more  may  be  asserted  for  de- 
mocracy than  this  :  (i)  That  under  the  domination 
of  force,  at  present  the  common  state  of  mankind,  es- 
cape from  majority  rule  in  some  form  is  impossible.  (2) 
That  hence  justice  as  seen  by  the  majority,  exercising 
its  will  in  conditions  of  equality  for  all,  marks  the 
highest  justice  obtainable.  In  their  social  organiza- 
tion and  practice,  the  Swiss  have  advanced  the  line  of 
justice  to  where  it  registers  their  political, — their  men- 
tal and  moral, — development.  Above  that,  manifestly, 
it  cannot  be  carried. 

Despite  a  widespread  impression  to  the  contrary,  the 
traditions  for  ages  of  nearly  all  that  now  constitutes 
Swiss  territory  have  been  of  tyranny  and  not  of 
liberty.  In  most  of  that  territory,  in  turn,  bishop,  king, 
noble,  oligarch,  and  politician  governed,  but  until  the 
past  half  century,  or  less,  never  the  masses.  Half  the 
area  of  Switzerland,  at  present  containing  40  per  cent 


OF    SWITZKRLANJJ.  6 1 

of  the  inhabitants,  was  brought  into  the  federation 
only  in  the  present  century.  Of  this  recent  accession, 
Geneva,  for  a  brief  term  part  of  France,  had  previous- 
ly long  been  a  pure  oligarchy,  and  more  remotely  a 
dictatorship  ;  Neuchatel  had  been  a  dependency  of  the 
crown  of  Prussia,  never,  in  fact,  fully  released  until 
1857  ;  Valais  and  the  Grisons,  so-called  independent 
confederacies,  had  been  under  ecclesiastical  rule ; 
Ticino  had  for  three  centuries  been  governed  as  con- 
quered territory,  the  privilege  of  ruling  over  it  pur- 
chased by  bailiffs  from  its  conciuerors,  the  ancient 
Swiss  League — "  a  harsh  government,"  declares  the 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  "  one  of  the  darkest  pas- 
sages of  Swiss  history."  Of  the  older  Switzerland, 
Bale,  Berne,  and  Zurich  were  oligarchical  cities,  each 
holding  in  feudality  extensive  neighboring  regions. 
Not  until  1833  were  the  peasants  of  Bale  placed  on  an 
equal  footing  with  the  townspeople,  and  then  only 
after  serious  disturbances.  And  the  inequalities  be- 
tween lord  and  serf,  victor  and  vanquished,  vot- 
er and  disfranchised,  existed  in  all  the  older  states 
save  those  now  known  as  the  Landsgemeinde  can- 
tons. Says  Vincent  :  "  Almost  the  only  thread  that 
held  the  Swiss  federation  together  was  the  possession 
of  subject  lands.  In  these  they  were  interested  as 
partners  in  a  business  corporation.  Here  were  reve- 
nues and  offices  to  watch  and  profits  to  divide,  and 
matters  came  to  such  a  pass  that  almost  the  only  ques- 
tions upon  which  the  Diet  could  act  in  concert  were 
the  inspection  of  accounts  and  other  affairs  connected 


62  THE    COMMON    WEALTH 

with  the  subject  territories.     The  common  properties 
were  all  that  prevented  complete  rupture  on  several 
critical  occasions.  Another  marked  feature  in  the  con- 
dition of  government  was  the  supremacy  gained  by 
the  patrician  class.     Municipalities  gained  the  upper 
hand  over  rural  districts,  and  within  the   municipali- 
ties the  old  families  assumed  more  and  more  privi- 
leges in  government,  in  society,  and  in  trade.     The 
civil  service  in  some  instances  became  the  monopoly 
of  a  limited  number  of  families,  who  were  careful  to 
perpetuate  all  their  privileges.     Even  in  the  rural  de- 
mocracies there  was  more  or  less  of  this  family  su- 
premacy visible.     Sporadic  attempts  at  reform  were 
rigorously  suppressed  in  the  cities,  and  government 
became  more  and  more  petrified  into  aristocracy.     A 
study  of  this  period  of  Swiss  history  explains  many  of 
the  provisions  found  in  the   constitutions  of  today, 
which  seem  like  over-precaution  against  family  influ- 
ence.    The  effect  of  privilege  was  especially  grievous, 
and  the  fear  of  it  survived  when  the  modern  constitu- 
tions were  made." 

Here,  plainly,  are  the  final  explanations  of  any  short- 
comings in  Swiss  liberty.  In  those  parts  of  Switzerland 
where  these  shortcomings  are  serious,  modern  ideas 
of  equality  in  freedom  have  not  yet  gained  ascendency 
over  the  ages-honored  institution  of  inequality.  Prog- 
ress is  evident,  but  the  goal  of  possible  freedom  is  yet 
distant.  How,  indeed,  could  it  be  otherwise  when  in  sev- 
eral cantons  it  was  only  in  1848,  with  the  Confedera- 
tion, that  manhood  suffrage  was  established  ? 


OF     SWITZERLAND.  63 

But  how,  it  may  be  inquired,  did  the  name  of  Swiss 
ever  become  the  synonym  of  liberty  ?  This  land  whose 
soldiery  hired  out  as  mercenaries  to  foreign  princes, 
this  League  of  oppressors,  this  hotbed  of  religious 
conflicts  and  persecutions, — how  came  it  to  be  regard- 
ed as  the  home  of  a  free  people  ! 

The  truth  is  that. the  traditional  reputation  of  the 
whole  country  is  based  on  the  ancient  character  of  a 
part.  The  Landsgemeinde  cantons  alone  bear  the  test 
of  democratic  principles.  Within  them,  indeed,  for  a 
thousand  years  the  two  primary  essentials  of  democ- 
racy have  prevailed.     They  are  : 

(i)  That  the  entire  citizenship  vote  the  law. 

(2)  That  land  is  not  property,  and  its  sole  just  ten- 
ure is  occupancy  and  use. 

The  first-named  essential  is  yet  in  these  cantons 
fully  realized  ;  largely,  also,  is  the  second. 

The    Communal  Lands  of  Switzerland. 

As  to  the  tenure  of  the  land  held  in  Switzerland  as 
private  property,  Hon.  Boyd  Winchester,  for  four  years 
American  minister  at  Berne,  in  his  recent  work,  "  The 
Swiss  Republic,"  says  :  "  There  is  no  country  in  Eu- 
rope where  land  possesses  the  great  independence, 
and  where  there  is  so  wide  a  distribution  of  land  own- 
ership as  in  Switzerland.  The  5,378,122  acres  devoted 
to  agriculture  are  divided  among  258,637  proprietors^ 
the  average  size  of  the  farms  throughout  the  whole 
country  being  not  more  than  twenty-one  acres.  Tlie 
facilities   for  the  acquisition  of   land   have  producec 


64  THE    COMMON    WEALTH 

small  holders,  with  security  of  tenure,  representing 
two-thirds  the  entire  population.  There  are  no  pri- 
mogeniture, copyhold,  customary  tenure,  and  manori- 
al rights,  or  other  artificial  obstacles  to  discourage 
land  transfer  and  dispersion."  "  There  is  no  belief  in 
Switzerland  that  land  was  made  to  administer  to  the 
perpetual  elevation  of  a  privileged  class  ;  but  a  wide- 
spread and  positive  sentiment,  as  Turgot  puts  it,  that 
'  the  earth  belongs  to  the  living  and  not  to  the  dead,' 
nor,  it  may  be  added,  to  the  unborn." 

Turgot's  dictum,  however,  obtains  no  more  than  to 
this  extent :  (i)  The  cantonal  testamentary  laws  al- 
most invariably  prescribe  division  of  property  among 
all  the  children — as  in  the  code  Napoleon,  which  pre- 
vails in  French  Switzerland,  and  which  permits  the  tes- 
tator to  dispose  of  only  a  third  of  his  property,  the 
rest  being  divided  among  all  the  heirs,  (2)  Highways, 
including  the  railways,  are  under  immediate  govern- 
ment control.  (3)  The  greater  part  of  the  forests  are 
managed,  much  of  them  owned,  by  the  Confederation. 

(4)  In  nearly  all  the  communes,  some  lands,  often  con- 
siderable in  area,  are  under  communal  administration. 

(5)  In  the  lyandsgemeinde  cantons  largely,  and  in  oth- 
er cantons  in  a  measure,  inheritance  and  participation, 
jointly  and  severally,  in  the  communal  lands  is  had  by 
the  members  of  the  communal  corporation — that  is,  by 
those  citizens  who  have  acquired  rights  in  the  public 
property  of  the  commune. 

Nearly  every  commune  in  Switzerland  has  public 
lands.     In   many   communes,  where  they  are    mostly 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  65 

wooded,  they  are  entirely  in  charge  of  the  local  gov- 
ernment ;  in  others,  they  are  in  part  leased  to  individ- 
uals ;  in  others,  much  of  them  is  worked  in  common 
by  the  citizens  having  the  right ;  but  in  the  Landsge- 
meinde  cantons  it  is  customary  to  divide  them  period- 
ically among  the  members  of  the  corporation. 

Of  the  Landsgemeinde  cantons,  one  or  two  yet  have 
nearly  as  great  an  area  of  public  land  as  of  private. 
The  canton  of  Uri  has  nearly  i,ooo  acres  of  cultivated 
lands,  the  distribution  of  which  gives  about  a  quarter 
of  an  acre  to  each  family  entitled  to  a  share.  Uri  has 
also  forest  lands  worth  between  4,000,000  and  5,000,000 
francs,  representing  a  capital  of  nearly  1,500  francs  to 
each  family.  The  commune  of  Obwald,  in  Unterwald, 
with  13,000  inhabitants,  has  lands  and  forests  valued 
at  11,350,000  francs.  Inner  Rhodes,  in  Appenzell,  with 
12,000  inhabitants,  has  land  valued  at  3,000,000  francs. 
Glarus,  because  of  its  manufactures,  is  one  of  the  rich- 
est cantons  in  public  domain.  In  the  non-Landsge- 
meinde  German  cantons,  there  is  much  common  land. 
One-third  of  all  the  lands  of  the  canton  of  Schauffhau- 
sen  is  held  by  the  communes.  The  town  of  Soleurc 
has  forests,  pastures,  and  cultivated  lands  worth  about 
6,000,000  francs.  To  the  same  value  amounts  the  com- 
mon property  of  the  town  of  St.  Gall.  In  the  canton 
of  St.  Gall  the  communal  Alpine  pasturages  comprise 
one-half  such  lands.  Schwyz  has  a  stretch  of  common 
land  (an  all  mend)  thirty  miles  in  length  and  ten  to  fif- 
teen in  breadth.  The  city  of  Zurich  has  a  well-kept 
forest  of  twelve  to  fifteen  square  miles,  worth  millions 


66  THE    COMMON    WEALTH 

of  francs.  Winterthur,  the  second  town  in  Zurich,  has 
so  many  forests  and  vineyards  that  for  a  long  period 
its  citizens  not  only  had  no  taxes  to  pay,  but  every  au- 
tumn each  received  gratis  several  cords  of  wood  and 
many  gallons  of  wine.  Numerous  small  towns  and  vil- 
lages in  German  Switzerland  collect  no  local  taxes, 
and  give  each  citizen  an  abundance  of  fuel.  In  addi- 
tion to  free  fuel,  cultivable  lands  are  not  infrequently 
allotted.  At  Stanz,  in  Unterwald,  every  member  of  the 
corporation  is  given  more  than  an  acre.  At  Buchs,  in 
St.  Gall,  each  member  receives  more  than  an  acre,  with 
firewood  and  grazing  ground  for  several  head  of  cattle. 
Upward  of  two  hundred  French  communes  possess 
common  lands.  In  the  canton  of  Vaud,  a  number  of 
the  communes  have  large  revenues  in  wood  and  but- 
ter from  the  forests  and  pastures  of  the  J;ira  mount- 
ains. Geneva  has  great  forests  ;  Valais  many  vine- 
yards. 

In  the  canton  of  Valais,  communal  vineyards  and 
grain  fields  are  cultivated  in  common.  Every  member 
of  the  corporation  who  would  share  in  the  produce  of 
the  land  contributes  a  certain  share  of  work  in  field 
or  vineyard.  Part  of  the  revenue  thus  obtained 
is  expended  in  the  purchase  of  cheese.  The  rest  of 
the  yield  provides  banquets  in  which  all  the  mem- 
bers take  part. 

Excepting  in  the  case  of  forests,  the  trend  is  away 
from  working  the  lands  in  common.  Examples  of  the 
later  methods  are  to  be  seen  in  the  cantons  of  Ticino 
and  Glarus,  as  follows  : — 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  6^ 

Several  communes  in  I'icino,  notably  Airolo,  have 
much  public  wealth.  Airolo  has  seventeen  mountain 
pastures,  each  of  which  feeds  forty  to  eighty  head  of 
cattle.  Each  member  of  the  corporation  has  the  right 
to  send  up  to  these  pastures  five  head  for  the  summer. 
Those  sending  more,  pay  for  the  privilege  ;  those  send- 
ing less,  receive  a  rental.  On  a  specified  day  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  season  and  on  another  at  the  close,  the 
milk  of  each  cow  is  weighed  ;  from  these  amounts  her 
average  yield  is  estimated,  and  her  total  produce 
computed.  The  cheese  and  butter  from  the  herds  are 
sold,  most  of  it  in  Milan,  the  hire  of  the  herders  paid, 
and  the  net  revenue  divided  among  the  members  ac- 
cording to  the  yield  of  their  cows. 

In  Glarus,  the  produce  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
communal  lands,  instead  of  being  directly  divided 
among  the  inhabitants,  is  substituted  for  taxation. 
The  commonable  alps  are  let  by  auction  for  a  term  of 
years,  and,  in  opposition  to  ancient  principles,  stran- 
gers may  bid  for  them.  Some  of  the  Glarus  communes 
sell  the  right  to  cut  timber  in  the  forest  under  the  su- 
perintendence of  the  guardians.  The  mountain  ho- 
tels, in  not  a  few  instances  the  property  of  the  com- 
munes, are  let  year  by  year.  Land  is  frequently  rent- 
ed from  the  communes  by  manufacturing  establish- 
ments. A  citizen  not  using  his  share  of  the  communal 
land  may  lease  it  to  the  commune,  which  in  turn  will 
let  it  to  a  tenant.  The  communes  of  Glarus  are  watch- 
ful that  enough  arable  land  is  preserved  for  distribu- 
tion among  the  members.     If  a  plot   is  sold  to  manu- 


68  THE    COMMON    WEALTH 

facturers,  or  for  private  building  purposes,  a  piece  of 
equal  or  greater  extent  is  bought  elsewhere.  Glarus 
has  relatively  as  many  people  engaged  in  industries 
aside  from  farming  as  any  other  spot  in  Europe.  It 
has  34,000  inhabitants,  of  whom  nearly  15,000  live  di- 
rectly by  manufactures,  while  of  the  rest  many  indi- 
rectly receive  something  from  the  same  source.  Dis- 
tributive cooperative  societies  on  the  English  plan 
exist  in  most  of  the  industrial  communes.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  communal  corporations  in  Glarus,  though 
not  rich,  are  as  free  and  independent  as  any  other 
wage-workers  in  the  world  :  they  inherit  the  common 
lands  ;  their  local  taxes  are  little  or  nothing  ;  they  are 
assured  work,  if  not  in  the  manufactories  then  on  the 
land. 

Of  the  poverty  that  fears  pauperism  in  old  age,  that 
dreads  enforced  idleness  in  recurrent  industrial  crises, 
that  undermines  health,  that  sinks  human  beings  in  ig- 
norance, that  deprives  men  of  their  manhood,  the  Swiss 
who  enjoy  the  common  lands  of  the  Landsgemeinde 
cantons  know  little  or  nothing.  They  have  enough. 
They  have  nothing  to  waste,  nothing  to  spare  ;  their 
fare  is  simple.  But  they  are  free.  It  is  to  the  like 
freedom  and  equality  of  their  ancestors  that  histori- 
ans have  pointed.  It  would  be  well  nigh  meaningless 
to  refer  to  any  freedom  and  equality  among  other 
ancient  Swiss.  The  right  of  asylum  from  religious 
oppression  is  the  sole  feature  of  liberty  at  all  general 
of  old.  The  present  is  the  first  generation  in  which 
all  the  Swiss  have  been  free.     The  chief  elements  of 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  69 

their  political  freedom — the  Initiative  and  Referen- 
dum— came  from  the  Landsgemeinde  cantons.  From 
the  same  source,  in  good  time,  so  also  may  come  to  all 
Switzerland  the  prime  element  of  economic  freedom — 
free  access  to  land. 

Poverty  is  a  relative  condition.  Men  may  be  poor 
of  mind — ignorant  ;  and  of  body — ill-fed,  ill-clothed, 
ill-sheltered  ;  and  of  rights — dependent.  And  from 
the  state  of  hopeless  deprivation  involving  all  these 
forms  upward  are  minute  gradations.  Where  stand 
the  Swiss  in  the  scale  ? 

This  the  reply  :  Their  system  of  education  gives  free 
opportunity  to  all  to  partake  of  the  mental  heritage 
of  the  ages.  Their  method  of  distribution,  through 
the  inheritance  laws,  of  private  and  common  lands, 
has  made  roughly  two-thirds  of  the  heads  of  families 
agricultural  land  holders.  There  being  in  other  re-^ 
gards  government  control  of  all  monopolies,  the  con- 
sequence is  a  widespread  distribution  of  the  annual 
product.  Hence,  no  pauperism  to  be  compared  with  that 
of  England  ;  no  plutocracy  such  as  we  have  in  America. 
Certain  other  facts  broadly  outline  the  general  com- 
fort and  independence.  As  one  effect  of  the  subdi- 
vision of  the  land,  the  soil,  so  far  as  nature  permits, 
is  highly  cultivated,  its  appearance  fertile,  finished, 
beautiful,  and  in  striking  contrast  with  the  dom- 
nating  vast,  bare  mountain  rocks  and  snovv^beds.  The 
many  towns  and  cities  bear  abundant  signs  of  a  gen- 
eral prosperity,  their  roads,  bridges,  stores,  residences, 


>jO  THE    COMMON    WEALTH 

and  public  buildings  betokening  in  the  inhabitants 
industry  and  energy,  and  freedom  to  employ  these 
qualities.  Emigration  is  at  low  percentage,  and  of 
those  citizens  who  do  leave  for  the  New  World  not  a 
few  are  educated  persons  with  some  means  seeking 
short  cuts  to  fortune.  ]\[uch  of  the  rough  work  of 
Switzerland  is  done  by  vSavoyards,  as  houseworkers, 
and  by  Italians,  as  farm  hands,  laborers,  and  stone  ma- 
sons :  showing  that  as  a  body  even  the  poorest  of  the 
propertyless  Swiss  have  some  choice  of  the  bet- 
ter paid  occupations.  Every  spring  sees  Italians, 
by  scores  of  thousands,  pouring  over  the  Alps  for 
a  summer's  work  in  Switzerland.  Indeed,  Swiss  wage- 
workers  might  command  better  terms  were  it  not 
for  competing  Italians,  French,  and  Germans.  In  other 
words,  through  just  social  arrangements,  enough  has 
been  done  in  Switzerland  to  raise  the  economic  level 
of  the  entire  nation  ;  but  the  overflow  of  laborers  from 
other  lands  depresses  the  condition  of  home  labor. 
Nevertheless,  where,  it  may  be  asked,  is  the  people 
higher  in  the  scale  of  civilization,  in  all  the  word  im- 
plies, than  the  Swiss  ? 

To  recount  what  the  Swiss  have  done  by  direct 
legislation  : 

They  have  made  it  easy  at  any  time  to  alter  their 
cantonal  and  federal  constitutions, — that  is,  to  change, 
even  radically,  the  organization  of  society,  the  social 
contract,  and  thus  to  permit  a  peaceful  revolution  at 
the  will  of  the  majority.     They  have  as  well  cleared 


OF    SWITZERLAND.  71 

from  the  way  of  majority  rule  every  obstaele, — privi- 
lege of  ruler,  fetter  of  ancient  law,  power  of  legislator. 
They  have  simplified  the  structure  of  government, 
held  their  officials  as  servants,  rendered  bureaucracy 
impossible,  converted  their  representatives  to  simple 
committeemen,  and  shown  the  parliamentary  sys- 
tem not  essential  to  lawmaking.  They  have  writ- 
ten their  laws  in  language  so  plain  that  a  layman 
may  be  judge  in  the  highest  court.  They  have  fore- 
stalled monopolies,  improved  and  reduced  taxation, 
avoided  incurring  heavy  public  debts,  and  made  a 
better  distribution  of  their  land  than  any  other  Euro- 
pean country.  They  have  practically  given  .home 
rule  in  local  affairs  to  every  community.  They  have 
calmed  disturbing  political  elements  ; — the  press  is  pu- 
rified, the  politician  disarmed,  the  civil  service  well  reg- 
ulated. Hurtful  partisanship  is  passing  away.  Since  the 
people  as  a  whole  will  never  willingly  surrender  their 
sovereignty,  reactionary  movement  is  possible  only  in 
case  the  nation  should  go  backward.  But  the  way  is 
open  forward.  Social  ideals  may  be  realized  in  act 
and  institution.  Even  now  the  liberty-loving  Swiss 
citizen  can  discern  in  the  future  a  freedom  in  which 
every  individual, — independent,  possessed  of  rights  in 
nature's  resources  and  in  command  of  the  friiits  of  his 
toil, — may,  at  his  will,  on  the  sole  condition  that  he  re- 
spect the  like  aim  of  other  men,  pursue  his  happiness. 


DIRECT   LEGISLATION  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES. 

"  But  these  are  foreign  methods.  How  are  they  to 
be  engrafted  on  our  American  sj-stem  ?"  More  than 
once  have  I  been  asked  this  question  when  describing 
the  Initiative  and  Referendum  of  Switzerland. 

The  reply  is  :  Direct  legislation  is  not  foreign  to 
this  country.  Since  the  settlement  of  New  England 
its  practice  has  been  customary  in  the  town  meeting, 
an  institution  now  gradually  spreading  throughout 
the  western  states — of  recent  years  with  increased  ra- 
pidity. The  Referendum  has  appeared,  likewise,  with 
respect  to  state  laws,  in  several  forms  in  every  part  of 
the  Union.  In  the  field  of  labor  organization,  also,  es- 
pecially in  several  of  the  more  carefully  managed  na- 
tional unions,  direct  legislation  is  freely  practiced. 
The  institution  does  not  need  to  be  engrafted  on  this 
republic  ;  it  is  here  ;  it  has  but  to  develop  naturally. 

The    Toivn  Meeting. 

The  town  meeting  of  New  England  is  the  counter- 
part of  the  Swiss  communal  political  meeting.  Both 
assemblies  are  the  primary  form  of  the  politico-social 
organization.  Both  are  the  foundation  of  the  struc- 
ture of  the  State.  The  essential  objects  of  both  are 
the  same  :  to  enact  local  regulations,  to  elect  local  oflS 


DIRECT    LEGISLATION    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  73 

cers,  to  fix  local  taxation,  and  to  make  appropriations 
for  local  purposes.  At  both,  any  citizen  may  propose 
measures,  and  these  the  majority  may  accept  or  reject 
— /.  e.,  the  working  principles  of  town  and  commune 
alike  are  the  Initiative  and  the  Referendum. 

A  fair  idea  of  the  proceedings  at  all  town  meetings 
may  be  gained  through  description  of  one.  For  sev- 
eral reasons,  a  detailed  account  here  of  what  actually 
happened  recently  at  a  town  meeting  is,  it  seems  to 
me,  justified.  At  such  a  gathering  is  seen,  in  plain 
operation,  in  the  primary  political  assembly,  the  prin- 
ciples of  direct  legislation.  The  departure  from  those 
principles  in  a  representative  gathering  is  then  the 
more  clearly  seen.  In  many  parts  of  the  country,  too, 
the  methods  of  the  town  meeting  are  little  known.  By 
observing  the  transactions  in  particular,  the  reader  will 
learn  the  variety  in  the  play  of  democratic  principle 
and  draw  from  it  instructive  inference. 

The  town  of  Rockland,  Plymouth  county,  in  the  east 
of  Massachusetts,  has  5,200  inhabitants  ;  assesses  for 
taxation  5,787  acres  of  land  ;  contains  1,078  dwelling 
houses,  800  of  which  are  occupied  by  owners,  and  num- 
bers 1,591  poll  tax  payers,  who  are  therefore  voters. 

At  9  a.  m.,  on  Monday,  March  2,  1891,  819  voters  of 
Rockland  assembled  in  the  opera  house  for  the  annual 
town  meeting,  the  "warrant"  for  which,  in  accordance 
with  the  law,  had  been  publicly  posted  seven  days  be- 
fore and  published  once  in  each  of  the  two  town  news- 
papers. A  presiding  officer  for  the  day,  called  a  mod- 
erator, was  elected  by  show  of  hands,  after  which  an 


74  DIRECT    LEGISLATION 

election  by  ballot  for  town  officers  for  the  ensuing  year 
was  begun.  The  supervisors  of  the  voting  were  the 
town  clerk  and  the  three  selectmen  (the  executive  offi- 
cers of  the  town),  who  were  seated  on  a  platform  at 
one  end  of  the  hall.  To  cast  his  ballot,  a  voter  mount- 
ed the  platform,  his  name  was  called  aloud  by  the 
clerk,  his  ballot  was  deposited,  a  check  bell  striking  as 
it  was  thrown  in  the  ballot-box,  and  the  voter  stepped 
on  and  down.  The  ballot  was  a  printed  one,  its  size, 
color,  and  type  regulated  by  state  law.  When  the  vot- 
ers had  cast  their  ballots,  five  tellers,  who  had  been 
chosen  by  show  of  hands,  counted  the  vote.  In  this 
balloting  for  town  officers,  there  was  no  division  into 
Republicans  and  Democrats,  although  considerable 
grouping  together  through  party  association  could  be 
traced.  The  officers  elected  were  a  town  clerk  and 
treasurer  ;  a  board  of  three,  to  serve  as  selectmen,  as- 
sessors, overseers  of  the  poor,  and  fence  viewers  ; 
three  school  committeemen  ;  a  water  commissioner  ;  a 
board  of  health  of  three  members  ;  two  library  trus- 
tees ;  three  auditors,  and  seven  constables. 

A  vote  was  also  taken  by  ballot — "  Yes  "  or  "  No  " — 
on  the  question  :  "  Shall  licenses  be  granted  for  the 
sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  in  this  town  ?"  The  yeas 
were  317  ;  nays,  347.  The  form  of  ballot  used  in  this 
case  was  precisely  that  invariably  employed  in  the 
Referendum  in  Switzerland. 

After  a  recess  of  an  hour  at  midday,  the  business 
laid  out  in  the  "  warrant  "  was  resumed.  There  were 
present  700  to  800  voters,  with,  as  on-lookers  on  the 


IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  75 

same  floor,  a  large  number  of  women,  the  principal  and 
pupils  of  the  high  school,  and  the  teachers  and  chil- 
dren of  the  grammar  schools. 

The  "  warrant  "  (the  schedule  for  the  meeting)  con- 
sisted of  forty-four  "  articles,"  each  representing  a  mat- 
ter to  be  debated  and  voted  on — that  is  to  say,  a  subject 
for  legislation.  These  articles  had  been  placed  in  the 
warrant  by  the  selectmen,  either  on  their  own  motion 
or  on  request  of  citizens.  The  election  of  moderator 
had  taken  place  imder  article  i  ;  that  of  town  officers 
under  article  2  ;  that  on  license  under  article  3.  The 
voting  on  the  rest  of  the  articles  now  took  place  by 
show  of  hands.  Article  4  related  to  the  annual  reports 
of  the  town  officers,  printed  copies  of  which  were  to  be 
had  by  each  citizen.  These  were  read  and  discussed. 
Article  5  related  to  the  general  appropriations  for 
town  expenses  for  the  ensuing  year  The  following 
were  decided  on,  each  item  being  voted  on  separately  : 

For  highway  repairs  -    -    $3,800  For  military  aid  -    -    -    -    $500 

For  removing  snow    -    -         300  For  guideboards       -    -    -        50 

For  fire  department    -    -       1,200  For  abatement  of  taxes  and 

For  police  service  -    -    -         500  collector's  fee    -    -    -       500 

For  night  watch     -    -    -         600  For  support  of  poor     -    -    5,500 

For  town  officers    -    -    -      2,200  For  library,  etc  -    -    -    -     1,000 

For  town  committees,  and  For  schools,  proper      -    -11,300 

Abingdon  records     -           50  For  school-incidentals      -     i.ouo 

For  miscellaneous  expenses  1,200  For  school  books     -    -    -     1,000 

For  interest        _    -    -    -      1,000  For  hydrants      -    -    -    -    2,300 

For  memorial  day       -    -          100  For  water  bonds,  etc       -    2,500 

Article  6,  which  was  agreed  to,  authorized  the  town 
treasurer  to  borrow  money  in  anticipation  of  the  col- 
lection of  taxes  ;    article  7  related  to  the  method  of 


y6  DIRECT    LEGISLATION 

collecting  the  town  taxes.  It  was  decided  these  should 
be  farmed  out  to  the  lowest  bidder,  and,  on  the  spot,  a 
citizen  secured  the  contract  at  sixty-eight  cents  on  the 
hundred.  Article  8  related  to  the  powers  of  the  tax 
collector  ;  9,  to  a  list  of  jurors  reported  by  the  select- 
men, which  was  accepted  ;  10,  to  methods  of  repairing 
highways  and  sidewalks  ;  11,  to  appropriating  money 
for  memorial  day.  Articles  10  and  11  were  passed 
over,  having  been  covered  in  the  general  appropria- 
tions, and  the  selectmen  were  instructed  to  enforce  in 
highway  work  the  nine-hour  law.  Article  12,  which 
was  adopted,  provided  for  a  night  watch  ;  13,  relating 
to  copying  the  records  of  Abingdon,  had  been  passed 
upon  m  the  general  appropriations  ;  14,  providing  for 
widening  and  straightening  a  street,  was  passed,  and 
$350  appropriated  for  the  purpose  ;  15,  providing  for 
concrete  sidewalks,  excited  much  debate,  and  $300  was 
appropriated  in  addition  to  material  on  hand  Articles 
16,  appropriating  $350  for  draining  a  street,  and  17,  re- 
questing the  selectmen  to  lay  out  a  water  course  on 
another  street,  were  adopted.  Article  18,  which  was 
carried  by  a  large  majority,  appropriated,  in  five 
items,  discussed  and  voted  on  separately,  $7,250  for 
the  fire  department.  Article  19  appropriated  $100  for 
a  town  road,  20  $200  for  another,  and  these  were  adopt- 
ed, but  21,  by  which  $325  was  asked  for  another  road, 
was  laid  on  the  table.  Articles  22  and  23,  appropriat- 
ing $75  and  $25  for  bridges,  were  passed.  Article  24, 
proposing  the  graveling  of  a  sidewalk,  was  referred  to 
the  selectmen.    Articles  25,  26,  27,  and  28,  proposing 


IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  77 

the  laying  of  sidewalks,  were  adopted,  with  appropri- 
ations of  $150,  $125,  $150,  and  $150  ;  but  29,  also  pro- 
posing a  new  sidewalk,  was  laid  on  the  table.  Arti- 
cle 30,  proposing  a  new  sidewalk,  was  adopted,  with  an 
appropriation  of  $300,  but  31,  proposing  another,  was 
laid  on  the  table.  Articles  32,  proposing  to  change  the 
grading  of  two  streets,  with  an  appropriation  of  $500  ; 
7,:^,  appropriating  $300  for  a  highway  roller  ;  34,  pro- 
viding for  a  public  drinking  fountain,  and  appropriat- 
ing $200  ;  35,  providing  for  a  new  bridge,  and  appro- 
priating $75,  were  all  adopted.  Articles  36,  37,  and 
38,  providing  for  extensions  to  the  water  mains,  were 
laid  on  the  table.  Article  39,  appropriating  $300  for 
relocation  of  a  telephone  line,  was  adopted  ;  but  arti- 
cles 40,  providing  for  a  memorial  building,  41,  provid- 
ing for  a  town  hall,  and  42,  providing  for  a  soldiers' 
memorial,  were  laid  on  the  table.  Lastly,  articles  43 
and  44,  providing  for  changes  in  street  names,  were 
accepted  as  reported  by  the  selectmen. 

After  finishing  the  "  warrant,"  the  meeting  appro- 
priated $10  to  pay  the  moderator,  fixed  $3  a  day  as  the 
rate  for  the  selectmen,  and  directed  the  latter  not  to 
employ  as  constable  any  man  who  had  been  rejected 
by  a  vote  of  the  town.  It  was  10.45  P-  i^^-  when  the 
assemblage  broke  up,  a  recess  having  been  taken  from 
5.30  to  7.30. 

The  proceedings  at  this  meeting  were  characterized 
by  democratic  methods.  When  the  town  officers  hand- 
ed in  their  reports,  they  were  questioned  and  criticised 
by  one  citizen  and  another.     A  motion  to  refer  the 


78  OlKbX'  I'    I  FT.  ISl  A  rU>N 

general  appropriation  list  to  a  oomuuttce  of  twenty- 
five  met  with  overwhelminji-  defeat  in  the  faee  of  the 
expressed  sentiment  that  about  all  left  of  primitive 
democracy  was  the  old-fashioned  town  meetini^.  One  of 
the  speakers  on  the  town  library  appropriation  was  a 
lady,  and  her  point  was  carried.  On  the  question  of 
btiying  new  tire  extingntishing-  apparatus,  there  were 
sides  and  leaders,  with  prolonged  debate.  As  to  roads 
and  bridges,  each  matter  was  dealt  with  on  its  own 
merits  and  separately  from  other  similar  propositions. 
In  the  election  for  ofhcers,  women  voted  for  school 
committeemen. 

The  only  officials  of  Rockland  under  annual  salary 
are  the  treasurer  and  town  physician.  Selectmen  re- 
ceive a  sum  per  diem  ;  constables,  fees  ;  school  com- 
mitteemen make  out  their  own  bills.  The  others  serve 
for  nothing. 

Rockland,  politically,  is  a  typical  New  England 
town.  "What  is  to  be  said  of  its  manner  of  town  meet- 
ing may,  with  little  modification,  be  said  of  all.  Each 
citizen  present  at  such  a  tncctiug  may  Join  in  the  de- 
bate. From  the  printed  copy  of  the  officers*  reports  he 
may  learn  what  his  town  government  has  done  in  the 
year  past  ;  from  the  printed  warrant  he  may  see  what 
is  proposed  to  be  done  in  the  year  comii^g.  Ho  who 
knows  the  better  way  in  any  of  the  business  is  sure  to 
receive  a  hearing.  The  pockets  of  all  being  concerned, 
whatever  is  best  and  cheapest  is  insured.  Bribery, 
successful  only  in  the  dark,  has  little  or  no  tield  in  the 
town  meetini}-. 


IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  79 

Provision  usually  exists  by  which  a  town  may  dispose 
of  any  urgent  matters  springing-  up  for  legislation  in 
the  course  of  the  year  :  as  a  rule  a  special  town  meet- 
ing may  be  called  on  petition  of  a  small  number  of 
citizens,  commonly  seven  to  eleven. 

In  a  study  of  the  town  meeting  system  of  today,  in 
"Harper's  ^Monthly,"  June,  1891,  Henry  Loomis  Nel- 
son brought  out  many  convincing  facts  as  to  its  su- 
periority over  government  by  a  town  board.  Where 
the  cost  for  public  lighting  in  a  New  England  town 
had  been  but  $2,000,  in  a  New  York  town  of  the  same 
size  it  had  amounted  to  $11,000.  The  cities  of  Worces- 
ter, Mass.,  and  Syracuse,  New  York,  each  of  about  80,- 
000  inhabitants,  were  compared,  with  the  New  Eng- 
land city  in  every  respect  by  far  the  more  economic- 
ally governed.  Towns  in  New  England  are  uni- 
formly superior  to  others  in  other  parts  of  the  country 
with  regard  to  the  extent  of  sewers  and  paved  streets. 
The  aggregate  of  town  debts  in  New  England  is  vast- 
ly less  than  the  aggregate  for  a  similar  population  in 
the  Middle  States.  The  state  constitutions  of  New 
England  commonly  relate  to  fundamental  principles, 
since  each  district  may  protect  itself  by  the  town 
meeting ;  but  outside  New  England,  to  assert  the 
rights  of  localities,  state  constitutions  usually  per- 
force embody  particulars.  In  their  fire  and  police  de- 
partments, and  public  school  and  water  supply  systems, 
New  England  towns  lead  the  rest  of  the  country. 
"  The  influence,"  says  Mr.  Nelson,  "  of  the  town  meet- 
ing government  upon  the  physical  character  of   the 


8o  DIRECT    LEGISLATION 

country,  upon  the  highways  and  bridges,  and  upon  the 
appearance  of  the  villages,  is  familiar  to  all  who  have 
traveled  through  New  England.  The  excellent  roads, 
the  stanch  bridges,  the  trim  tree-shaded  streets,  the 
universal  signs  of  thrift  and  of  the  people's  pride  in 
the  outward  aspects  of  their  villages,  are  too  well 
known  to  be  dwelt  upon."  In  every  New  England 
community  many  of  the  men  are  qualified  by  experi- 
ence to  take  charge  of  a  public  meeting  and  conduct 
its  proceedings  with  some  regard  to  the  forms  ob- 
served in  parliamentary  bodies.  But  elsewere  in  the 
Union  few  of  the  citizens  have  any  knowledge  of 
such  forms  and  observances.  "  In  New  England  there 
is  not  a  voter  who  may  not,  and  very  few  voters 
who  do  not,  actively  participate  in  the  work  of  govern- 
ment. In  the  other  parts  of  the  country  hardly  any 
one  takes  |)art  in  public  affairs  except  the  office- 
holder." 

John  Fiske,  in  "  Civil  Government  in  the  United 
States,"  (1890),  says  that  "the  general  tendency  to- 
ward the  spread  of  township  government  in  the  more 
recently  settled  parts  of  the  United  States  is  unmis- 
takable." The  first  western  state  to  adopt  the  town 
meeting  system  was  Michigan  ;  but  it  now  prevails  in 
four-fifths  of  the  counties  of  Illinois  ;  in  one-sixth  of 
Missouri,  where  it  was  begun  in  1879;  and  in  one- 
third  of  the  counties  of  Nebraska,  which  adopted  it  in 
1883  ;  while  it  has  gone  much  further  in  Minnesota 
and  Dakota,  in  which  states  it  has  been  law  since  1878 
and  1883,  respectively. 


IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  8l 

''Within  its  proper  sphere,"  says  Fiske,  "government 
by  town  meeting  is  the  form  of  government  most  ef- 
fectively under  watch  and  control.  Everything  is  done 
in  the  full  daylight  of  publicity.  The  specific  objects 
for  which  public  money  is  to  be  appropriated  are  dis- 
cussed in  the  presence  of  everybody,  and  any  one  who 
disapproves  of  any  of  these  objects,  or  of  the  way  in 
which  it  is  proposed  to  obtain  it,  has  an  opportunity 
to  declare  his  opinions."  "  The  inhabitant  of  a  New 
England  town  is  perpetually  reminded  that  '  our  gov- 
ernment '  is  '  the  people.'  Although  he  may  think 
loosely  about  the  government  of  his  state  or  the  still 
more  remote  government  at  Washington,  he  is  kept 
pretty  close  to  the  facts  where  local  affairs  are  con- 
cerned, and  in  this  there  is  a  political  training  of  no 
small  value." 

The  same  writer  notes  in  the  New  England  towns  a 
tendency  to  retain  good  men  in  office,  such  as  we  have 
seen  is  the  case  in  Switzerland.  "  The  annual  election 
affords  an  easy  means  of  dropping  an  unsatisfactory 
officer.  But  in  practice  nothing  has  been  more  com- 
mon than  for  the  same  persons  to  be  re-elected  as 
selectman  or  constables  or  town-clerks  for  year  after 
year,  as  long  as  they  are  willing  or  able  to  serve.  The 
notion  that  there  is  anything  peculiarly  American  or 
democratic  in  what  is  known  as  '  rotation  in  office '  is 
therefore  not  sustained  by  the  practice  of  the  New 
England  town,  which  is  the  most  complete  democracy 
in  the  world."  In  another  feature  is  there  resemblance 
to   Swiss   custom :    some  of  the   town    officials    serve 


82  DIRECT    LEGISLATION 

without  pay   and    none   receive    exorbitant   salaries. 

The  Referendum  in  States,  Cities,  Counties,  Etc. 

Few  are  aware  of  the  advances  which  direct  legisla- 
tion has  made  in  state  government  in  the  United  States. 
Many  facts  on  this  subject,  collected  by  Mr.  Ellis  P. 
Oberholtzer,  were   published   in   the  "Annals  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science," 
November,  1891.     Condensed,  this  writer's  statement 
is  as  follows  :  Constitutional  amendments  now  go  to 
the  people  for  a  vote  in  every  state  except  Delaware. 
The  significance  of  this  fact,  and  the  resemblance  of 
this  vote  to  the  Swiss  Referendum,  is  seen  when  one 
considers  the  subject  matter  of  a  state  constitution. 
Nowadays,  such  a  constitution  usually  limits  a  legis- 
lature to  a  short  biennial  session  and  defines  in  detail 
what  laws  the  legislature  may  and  may  not  pass.     In 
fact,  then,  in  adopting  a  constitution  once  in  ten  or 
twenty  years,  the  voters  of  a  state  decide  upon  admissi- 
ble legislation.      Thus  they  themselves  are  the  real 
legislators.     Among  the  matters  once  left  entirely  to 
legislatures,  but  now  commonly  dealt  with  in  consti- 
tutions, are  the  following  :     Prohibiting  or  regulating 
the  liquor  traffic  ;  prohibiting  or  chartcTing  lotteries  ; 
determining   tax   rates  ;   founding  and  locating   state 
schools    and  other    state    institutions  ;  establishing  a 
Itgal  rate  of  interest;  fixing  the  salaries  of  public  offi- 
cials ;  drawing  up  railroad  and  other  corporation  reg- 
ulations ;  and  defining  the  relations  of  husbands  and 
wives,  and  of  debtors  and  creditors.     In  line  v/ith  all 


IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  83 

this  is  a  tendency  to  easy  amendment.  In  nearly  all 
the  new  states  and  in  those  older  ones  which  have  re- 
cently revised  their  constitutions,  the  time  in  which 
amendments  may  be  effected  is  as  a  rule  but  half  of 
that  formerly  required.  Where  once  the  approval  of 
two  successive  legislatures  was  exacted,  now  the  con- 
sent of  one  is  considered  sufficient. 

In  fifteen  states,  until  submitted  to  a  popular  vote, 
no  law  changing  the  location  of  the  capital  is  valid  ;  in 
seven,  no  laws  establishing  banking  corporations  ;  in 
eleven,  no  laws  for  the  incurrence  of  debts  excepting 
such  as  are  specified  in  the  constitution,  and  no  excess 
of  "casual  deficits"  beyond  a  stipulated  sum  ;  in  sev- 
eral, no  rate  of  assessment  exceeding  a  figure  propor- 
tionate to  the  aggregate  valuation  of  the  taxable  prop- 
erty. Without  the  Referendum,  Illinois  cannot  sell  its 
state  canal ;  Minnesota  cannot  pay  interest  or  princi- 
pal of  the  Minnesota  railroad  ;  North  Carolina  cannot 
extend  the  state  credit  to  aid  any  person  or  corpora- 
tion, excepting  to  help  certain  railroads  unfinished  in 
1876.  With  the  Referendum,  Colorado  may  adopt 
woman  suffrage  and  create  a  debt  for  public  buildings. 
Texas  may  fix  a  location  for  a  college  for  colored 
youth  ;  Wyoming  may  decide  on  the  sites  for  its  state 
university,  insane  asylum  and  penitentiary. 

Numerous  important  examples  of  the  Referendum 
in  local  matters  in  the  United  States,  especially  in  the 
West,were  found  by  Mr.  Oberholtzcr.  There  are  many 
county,  city,  township,  and  school  district  referendums. 
Nineteen  state  constitutions  guarantee  to  counties  the 


84  DIRECT    LEGISLATION 

right  to  fix  by  vote  of  the  citizens  the  location  of  the 
county  seats.  So  also  usually  of  county  lines,  divi- 
sions of  counties,  and  like  matters.  Several  western 
states  leave  it  to  a  vote  of  the  counties  as  to  when  they 
shall  adopt  a  township  organization,  with  town  meet- 
ings ;  several  states  permit  their  cities  to  decide  when 
they  shall  also  be  counties.  As  in  the  state,  there  are 
debt  and  tax  matters  that  may  be  passed  on  only  by 
the  people  of  cities,  boroughs,  counties,  or  school  dis- 
tricts. Without  the  Referendum,  no  municipality  in 
Pennsylvania  may  contract  an  aggregate  debt  beyond 
2  per  cent  of  the  assessed  valuation  of  its  taxable 
property  ;  no  municipalites  in  certain  other  states  may 
incur  in  any  year  an  indebtedness  beyond  their  reve- 
nues ;  no  local  governments  in  the  new  states  of  the 
West  may  raise  any  loans  whatever  ;  none  in  other 
states  may  exceed  certain  limits  in  tax  rates.  With 
the  Referendum,  certain  Southern  communities  may 
make  harbor  improvements,  and  other  communities 
may  extend  the  local  credit  to  railroad,  water  trans- 
portation, and  similar  corporations.  The  prohibi- 
tion of  the  liquor  business  in  a  city  or  county  is 
often  left  to  a  popular  vote  ;  indeed,  "local  option"  is 
the  commonest  form  of  Referendum.  In  California 
any  city  with  more  than  10,000  inhabitants  may  frame  a 
charter  for  its  own  government,  which,  however,  must 
be  approved  by  the  legislature.  Under  this  law  Stock- 
ton, San  Jose,  Los  Angeles,  and  Oakland  have  acquired 
new  charters.  In  the  state  of  Washington,  cities  of 
20,000  may  make  their  own  charters  without  the  legis- 


IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  85 

lature  having  any  power  of  veto.     Largely,  then,  such 
cities  make  their  own  laws. 

In  fact,  the  vast  United  States  seems  to  have  seen 
as  much  of  the  Referendum  as  little  Switzerland.  But 
the  effect  of  the  practice  has  been  largely  lost  in  the 
great  size  of  this  country  and  in  the  loose  and  unsys- 
tematized character  of  the  institution  as  known  here. 

In  the  "American  Commonwealth  "  of  James  Bryce, 
a  member  of  Parliament,  there  is  a  chapter  entitled 
"Direct  Legislation  by  the  People."  After  reciting 
many  facts  similar  in  character  to  those  given  by  Mr. 
Oberholtzer,  Mr.  Bryce  inquires  into  the  practical 
workings  of  direct  legislation.  He  finds  what  are  to 
his  mind  some  "obvious  demerits."  Of  these  demer- 
its, such  as  apply  to  details  he  develops  in  the  course 
of  his  statements  of  several  cases  of  Referendum.  In 
summing  up,  he  further  points  out  what  seem  to  him 
two  objections  to  the  principle.  One  is  that  direct 
legislation  "  tends  to  lower  the  authority  and  sense 
of  responsibility  of  the  legislature."  But  this  is  pre- 
cisely the  aim  of  pure  democracy,  and  from  its  point 
of  view  a  merit  of  the  first  order.  The  other  objection 
is,  "it  refers  matters  needing  much  elucidation  by 
debate  to  the  determination  of  those  who  cannot,  on 
account  of  their  numbers,  meet  together  for  discus 
sion,  and  many  of  whom  may  have  never  thought 
about  the  matter."  But  why  meet  together  for  dis- 
cussion ?  Mr.  Bryce  here  overlooks  that  this  is  the 
age  of  the  newspaper  and  telegraph,  and  that  through 


g6  DIRECT    LEGISLATION 

these  sources  the  facts  and  much  debate  on  any  matter 
of  public  interest  may  be  forthcoming  on  demand. 
Mr.  Bryce,ho\vever,  sees  more  advantages  than  demerits 
in  direct  legislation.  Of  the  advantages  he  remarks  : 
"The  improvement  of  the  legislatures  is  just  what 
the  Americans  despair  of,  or,  as  they  would  prefer  to 
say,  have  not  time  to  attend  to.  Hence  they  fall  back 
on  the  Referendum  as  the  best  course  available  under 
the  circumstances  of  the  case  and  in  such  a  world  as 
the  present.  They  do  not  claim  that  it  has  any  great 
educative  effect  on  the  people.  But  they  remark  with 
truth  til  at  the  mass  of  the  people  are  equal  in  intelli- 
gence and  character  to  the  average  state  legislator, 
and  are  exposed  to  fewer  temptations.  The  legislator 
can  be  '  got  at,'  the  people  cannot.  The  personal  in- 
terest of  the  individual  legislator  in  passing  a  measure 
for  chartering  banks  or  spending  the  internal  im- 
provement fund  may  be  greater  than  his  interest;  as 
one  of  the  community  in  preventing  bad  laws.  It  will 
be  otherwise  with  the  bulk  of  the  citizens.  The  legis- 
lator may  be  subjected  by  the  advocates  of  women's 
suffrage  or  liquor  prohibition  to  a  pressure  irresistible 
by  ordinary  mortals  ;  but  the  citizens  are  too  numer- 
ous to  be  all  wheedled  or  threatened.  Hence  they  can 
and  do  reject  proposals  which  the  legislature  has  as- 
sented to.  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  in  a  country 
where  law  depends  for  its  force  on  the  consent  of  the 
governed,  it  is  eminently  desirable  that  law  should  not 
outrun  popular  sentiment,  but  have  the  whole  weight 
of  the  people's  deliverance  behind  it." 


IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  87 

The  Initiative  and  Referendum  in  Labor  Organizations. 

The  Referendum  is  well  known  to  the  Knights  of 
Labor.  For  nine  years  past  expressions  of  opinion  have 
been  asked  of  the  local  assemblies  by  the  general 
executive  board.  The  recent  decision  of  the  order  to 
enter  upon  independent  political  action  was  made  by 
a  vote  in  response  to  a  circular  issued  by  the  General 
Master  Workman.  The  latter,  at  the  annual  conven- 
tion at  Toledo,  in  November,  1891,  recommended  that 
the  Referendum  form  a  part  of  the  government  ma- 
chinery throughout  the  United  States.  The  Knights 
being  in  some  respects  a  secret  organization,  data  as 
to  referendary  votings  are  not  always  made  public. 

For  the  past  decade  or  longer  several  of  the  national 
and  international  trades-unions  of  America  have  had 
the  Initiative  and  Referendum  in  operation.  Within 
the  past  five  years  the  institution  in  various  forms  has 
been  taken  up  by  other  unions,  and  at  present  it  is  in 
more  or  less  practice  in  the  following  bodies,  all  asso- 
ciated with  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  : 

No.  of  No.  of  Members, 

National  or  International  Union.  Local  Unions.    December,  1891. 

Journeymen  Bakers  -        -        -        -        -        81  17.500 

Brewery  Workmen    -----        61  9.5oo 

United  Broth'h'd  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners  740  65,000 

Amalgamated  Carpenters  and  Joiners    -        40  2,800 

Cigar-makers              -----      310  27,000 

Carriage  and  Wagon  Makers   -        -        -        n  2,000 

Garment  Workers      -----        24  4.000 

Granite  Cutters          -        -        -  ■     -        -        75  20,000 

Tailors        -------       170  17.000 

Typographical  Union        -        -        -        -       290  28,000 

Total -        -        .        .  i92,Soo 


00  DIRECT    LEGISLATION 

Direct  legislation  has  long  been  familiar  to  the 
members  of  the  International  Cigar-Makers'  Union. 
Today,  amendments  to  its  constitution,  the  acts  of  its 
executives,  and  even  the  resolutions  passed  at  dele- 
gate conventions,  are  submitted  to  a  vote  by  ballot  in 
the  local  unions.  The  nineteenth  annual  convention, 
held  at  Indianapolis,  September,  1891,  provisionally 
adopted  114  amendments  to  the  constitution  and  ^^ 
resolutions  on  various  matters.  Though  some  of  the 
latter  were  plainly  perfunctory  in  character,  all  of 
these  147  propositions  were  printed  in  full  in  the  "  Offi- 
cial Journal"  for  October,  and  voted  on  in  the  310 
unions  throughout  America  in  November.  The  Initi- 
ative is  introduced  in  this  international  union  through 
local  unions.  When  twenty  of  the  latter  have  passed 
favorably  on  a  measure,  it  must  be  submitted  to  the 
entire  body.  An  idea  of  the  financial  transactions  of 
the  Cigar-Makers'  International  Union  may  be  gath- 
ered from  its  total  expenditures  in  the  past  twelve 
years  and  a  half.  In  all,  it  has  disbursed  in  that  time 
$1,426,208.  Strikes  took  $469,158  ;  sick  benefits,  $439,- 
010  ;  death  benefits,  $109,608  ;  traveling  benefits,  $372,- 
455,  and  out  of  work  benefits,  $35,795.  The  advance  of 
the  Referendum  in  this  great  union  has  been  very 
gradual.  It  began  in  1877  with  voting  on  constitu- 
tional amendments.  The  most  recent,  and  perhaps 
last  possible,  step  was  to  transfer  the  election  of  the 
general  executive  board  from  the  annual  convention 
to  the  entire  body. 

The  United  Garment  Workers  of  America  practice 


IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  89 

direct  legislation  under  Article  24  of  their  constitu- 
tion, which  is  printed  under  the  caption, "Referendum 
and  Initiative."  It  prescribes  two  methods  of  Initia- 
tive. One  is  that  three  or  more  local  unions,  if  of  differ- 
ent states,  may  instruct  the  general  secretary  to  call  for 
a  referendary  vote  in  the  unions  of  the  national  organ- 
ization. The  other  is  that  the  general  executive  board 
must  so  submit  all  questions  of  general  importance. 
The  general  secretary  issues  the  call  within  two  weeks 
after  the  petition  for  a  vote  reaches  him,  and  the  vote 
is  taken  within  six  months  afterward.  Eighteen  prop- 
ositions passed  by  the  annual  convention  of  this 
union  at  Boston,  in  November,  1891,  were  submitted  to 
a  vote  of  the  local  unions  in  December. 

In  1890,  the  local  unions  of  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union,  then  numbering  nearly  290,  voted  on 
twenty-five  propositions  submitted  from  the  annual 
convention.  In  1891,  fourteen  propositions  were  sub- 
mitted. Of  the  latter,  one  authorized  the  formation 
of  unions  of  editors  and  reporters  ;  another  directed 
the  payments  to  the  President  to  be  a  salary  of  $1,400, 
actual  railroad  fares  by  the  shortest  possible  routes,  and 
$3  a  day  for  hotel  expenses  ;  another  rescinded  a  six 
months'  exemption  from  a  per  capita  tax  for  newly 
formed  unions  ;  another  provided  for  a  funeral  benefit 
of  $50  on  the  death  of  a  member  ;  by  another  an  as- 
sessment of  ten  cents  a  month  was  levied  for  the 
home  for  superannuated  and  disabled  union  printers. 
All  fourteen  were  adopted,  the  majorities,  however, 
varying  from  558  to  8,758. 


90 


DIRECT    LEGISLATION 


Is  Complete  Direct  Legislation  in  Government  Practicable  ? 

The  conservative  citizen,   contented  with  the  exist- 
ing state  of  things,  is  wont  to  brush   aside  proposed 
innovations  in  government.     To  do  so  he  avails  him- 
self of  a  familiar  stock  of  objections.     But  have  they 
not  all  their  answer  in  the  facts  thus  far  brought  forth 
in  these  chapters  ?    Will  he  entertain  no  "  crazy  theo- 
ries"?    Here  is  offered  practice,  proven  in  varied  and 
innumerable  tests  to  be  thoroughly  feasible.    He  is  op- 
posed to  foreign  institutions  ?    Here  is  a  time-honored 
American  institution.     He  holds  that  men  cannot  be 
made  better  by  law  ?   Here  are  facts  to  show  that  with 
change  of  law  justice  has  been  promoted.     He  deems 
democracy  feebleness?     Here  has  been  shown  its  stal- 
wart strength.     He  is  sure  workingmen  are  incapable 
of  managing  large  affairs  ?     Let  him  look  to  the  cigar- 
makers — their  capacity  for  organization,  their  self-re- 
straint as  an  industrial  army,  the  soundness   of  their 
financial  system,  the  mastery  of  their   employers  in 
the  eight-hour  question.     He  believes  the  intricacies 
of  taxation  and  estimates  of  appropriation  beyond  the 
average  mind?     He   may   see  a  New   England  town 
meeting  in  a  single  day  dispose  of  scores  of  items  and, 
with  each  settled  to  a  nicety,  vote  away  fifty  thousand 
dollars.     He  fears  state  legislation,  by  reason  of  its 
complexity,    would   prove    a   puzzle    to   the   ordinary 
voter?    Why,  then,  are  the  more  vexatious  subjects  so 
often  shifted  by  the  legislators  to  the  people  ? 

The  conservative  objector  is,  first,  apt  to  object  be- 


IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  9I 

fore  fully  examining-  what  he  dissents  from,  and.  sec- 
ondly, prone  to  have  in  mind  ideal  conditions  with 
which  to  compare  the  new  methods  commended  to 
him.  In  the  matter  of  legislation,  he  dreams  of  a  body 
of  high-minded  lawgivers,  jnst,  wise,  unselfish,  and  not 
of  legislators  as  they  commonly  are.  He  forgets  that 
Congress  and  the  legislatures  have  each  a  permanent 
lobby,  buying  privileges  for  corporations,  and  other- 
wise influencing  and  corrupting  members.  He  forgets 
the  party  caucus,  at  which  the  individual  member  is 
swamped  in  the  majority  ;  the  "  strikers,"  members 
employing  their  powers  in  blackmail ;  the  Black  Horse 
Cavalry,  a  combination  of  members  in  state  legisla- 
tures formed  to  enrich  themselves  by  plunder  through 
passing  or  killing  bills.  He  forgets  the  scandalous 
jobs  put  through  to  reward  political  workers  ;  the 
long  lists  of  doubtful  or  vicious  bills  reviewed  in  the 
press  after  each  session  of  every  legislative  body  ;  the 
pamphlets  issued  by  reform  bodies  in  which  perhaps 
three- fourths  of  a  legislature  is  named  as  untrust- 
worthy, and  the  price  of  many  of  the  m.embers  given. 
The  City  Reform  Club  of  New  York  published  in  1SS7: 
"As  with  the  city's  repesentatives  of  1SS6,  the  chief 
objects  of  most  of  the  New  York  members  were  to 
make  money  in  the  'legislative  business,' to  advance 
their  own  political  fortunes,  and  to  promote  the  inter- 
ests of  their  factions."  And  where  is  the  state  legis- 
lature of  which  much  the  same  things  cannot  be  said  ? 
The  conservative  objector  may  not  know  how  the 
most  important  bills   are  often  passed  in  Congress. 


92  DIRECT    LEGISLATION 

He  may  not  know  that  until  toward  the  close  of  a  ses- 
sion the  business  of  Congress  is  political  in  the  party- 
sense  rather  than  in  the  governing  sense  ;  that  on  the 
floor  the  play  is  usually  conducted  for  effect  on 
the  public  ;  that  in  committees,  measures  into  which 
politics  enter  are  made  up  either  on  compromise  or 
for  partisan  purposes  ;  that,  finally,  in  the  last  days  of 
a  session,  the  work  of  legislation  is  a  scramble.  The 
second  day  before  the  adjournment  of  the  last  Con- 
gress was  thus  described  in  a  New  York  daily  paper: 
"  Congress  has  been  working  like  a  gigantic  thresh- 
ing machine  all  day  long,  and  at  this  hour  there  is 
every  prospect  of  an  all-night  session  of  both  houses. 
Helter-skelter,  pell-mell,  the  '  unfinished  business '  has 
been  poured  into  the  big  hopper,  and  in  less  time  than 
it  takes  to  tell  it,  it  has  come  out  at  the  other  end  com- 
pleted legislation,  lacking  only  the  President's  signa- 
ture to  fit  it  for  the  statute  books.  Public  bills  pro- 
viding for  the  necessary  expenses  of  the  government, 
private  bills  galore  having  as  their  beneficiaries  fa- 
vored individuals,  jobbery  m  the  way  of  unnecessary 
public  buildings,  railroad  charters,  and  bridge  con- 
struction— all  have  been  rushed  through  at  lightning 
speed,  and  the  end  is  not  yet.  A  majority  of  the  House 
members,  desperate  because  their  power  and  influence 
terminate  with  the  end  of  this  brief  session,  and  a 
partisan  Speaker,  whose  autocratic  rule  will  prevail 
but  thirty-six  short  hours  longer,  have  left  nothing 
unattempted  whereby  party  friends  and  proteges 
might  be  benefited.     It  is  safe  to  say  that  aside  from  a 


IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  93 

half  dozen  measures  of  real  importance  and  genuine 
merit  the  countr}^  would  be  no  worse  off  should  every 
other  bill  not  yet  acted  upon  fail  of  passage.  Certain 
it  is  that  large  sums  of  money  would  be  saved  to  the 
Government."  And  what  observer  does  not  know  that 
scenes  not  unlike  this  are  repeated  in  almost  every 
legislature  in  its  closing  hours  ? 

As  between  such  manner  of  even  national  legisla- 
tion on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  the  entire  citi- 
zenship voting  (as  soon  would  be  the  fact  under  direct 
legislation)  on  but  what  properly  should  be  law — and 
on  principles,  on  policies,  and  on  aggregates  in  appro- 
priations— would  there  be  reason  for  the  country  to 
hesitate  in  choosing  ? 

Among  the  plainest  signs  of  the  times  in  America 
is  the  popular  distrust  of  legislators.  The  citizens  are 
gradually  and  surely  resuming  the  law-making  and 
money-spending  power  unwisely  delegated  in  the 
past  to  bodies  whose  custom  it  is  to  abuse  the  trust. 
"  Government "  has  come  to  mean  a  body  of  represen- 
tatives with  interests  as  often  as  not  opposed  to  those 
of  the  great  mass  of  electors.  Were  legislation  direct, 
the  circle  of  its  functions  would  speedily  be  narrowed  ; 
certainly  they  would  never  pass  legitimate  bounds  at 
the  urgency  of  a  class  interested  in  enlarging  its  own 
powers  and  in  increasing  the  volume  of  public  outlay 
Were  legislation  direct,  the  sphere  of  every  citizen 
would  be  enlarged;  each  would  consequently  acquire 
education  in  his  role,  and  develop  a  lively  interest  in 
the  public  affairs  in  part  under  his  own  management. 


94  DIRECT    LEGISLATION    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

And  what  so-called  public  business  can  be  right  in 
principle,  or  expedient  m  policy,  on  which  the  Ameri- 
can voter  may  not  pass  in  person  ?  To  reject  his  au- 
thority in  politics  is  to  compel  him  to  abdicate  his 
sovereignty.  That  done,  the  door  is  open  to  pillage  of 
the  treasury,  to  bribery  ot  the  representative,  and  to 
endless  interference  with  the  liberties  of  the  individual. 


THE  WAY  OPEN  TO  PEACEFUL  REVOLUTION. 

What  I  set  out  in  the  first  chapter  to  do  seems  to  me 
done.  I  essayed  to  show  how  the  political  "machine," 
its  "ring,"  "boss,"  and  "heeler,"  might  be  abolished, 
and  how,  consequently,  the  American  plutocracy 
might  be  destroyed,  and  government  simplified  and 
contracted  to  the  field  of  its  natural  operations.  These 
ends  achieved,  a  social  revolution  would  be  accom- 
plished— a  revolution  without  loss  of  a  single  life  or 
destruction  of  a  dollar's  worth  of  property. 

Whoever  has  read  the  foregoing  chapters  has  seen 
these  facts  established  : 

(i)  That  much  in  proportion  as  the  whole  body  of 
citizens  take  upon  themselves  the  direction  of  public 
affairs,  the  possibilities  for  political  and  social  para- 
sitism disappear.  The  "  machine  "  becomes  without 
effective  uses,  the  trade  of  the  politician  is  rendered 
undesirable,  and  the  privileges  of  the  monopolist  are 
withdrawn. 

(2)  That  through  the  fundamental  principles  of  de- 
mocracy in  practice — the  Initiative  and  the  Referen- 
dum—great bodies  of  people,  with  the  agency  of  cen- 
tral committees,  may  formulate  all  necessary  law  and 
direct  its  execution. 

(3)  That  the  difeerence  between  a  representative 
government  and  a  democracy  is  radical.     The  differ- 


g6  THE    WAY    OPEN 

ence  lies  in  the  location  of  the  sovereignty  of  society. 
The  citizens  who  assign  the  lawmaking  power  to  offi- 
cials surrender  in  a  body  their  collective  sovereignty. 
That  sovereignty  is  then  habitually  employed  by  the 
lawgivers  to  their  own  advantage  and  to  that  of  a  twin 
governing  class,  the  rich,  and  to  the  detriment  of  the 
citizenship  in  general  and  especially  the  poor.  But 
when  the  sovereignty  rests  permanently  with  the  citi- 
zenship, there  evolves  a  government  differing  essen- 
tially from  representative  government.  It  is  that  of 
mere  stewardship  and  the  regulation  indispensable  to 
society. 

The  Social  Forces  Ready  for  Our  Methods. 

Now  that  our  theory  of  social  reform  is  fully  sub- 
stantiated by  fact,  our  methods  shown  to  be  in  har- 
mony with  popular  sentiment,  our  idea  of  democratic 
government  clearly  defined,  and  our  final  aim  political 
justice,  there  remains  some  consideration  of  early 
possible  practical  steps  in  line  with  these  principles 
and  of  the  probable  trend  of  events  afterward. 

Having  practical  work  in  view,  we  may  first  take 
some  account  of  the  principal  social  forces  which  may 
be  rallied  in  support  of  our  methods  :— 

To  begin  with  :  Sincere  men  who  have  abandoned 
hope  of  legislative  reform  may  be  called  to  renewed 
effort.  Many  such  men  have  come  to  regard  politics 
as  inseparable  from  corruption.  They  have  witnessed 
the  tediousness  and  unprofitableness  of  seeking  relief 
through  legislators,  and  time  and  again  have  they  seen 


TO     PEACEFUL     REVOLUTION.  97 

the  very  officials  elected  to  bring  about  reforms  go 
over  to  the  powers  that  exploit  the  masses.  They  have 
seen  in  the  course  of  time  the  tricks  of  partisan  legis- 
lators almost  invariably  win  as  against  the  wishes  of 
the  masses.  They  know  that  in  politics  there  is  little 
study  of  the  public  needs,  but  merely  a  practice  of  the 
ignoble  arts  of  the  professional  politician.  Here,  how- 
ever, the  proposed  social  reorganization  depends,  not 
on  representatives,  but  on  the  citizens  themselves  ; 
and  the  means  by  which  the  citizens  may  fully  carry 
out  their  purposes  have  been  developed.  A  fact,  too,  of 
prime  importance  :  Where  heretofore  in  many  local- 
ities the  people  have  temporarily  overthrown  politician 
and  plutocrat,  only  to  be  themselves  defeated  in  the 
end,  every  point  gained  by  the  masses  in  direct  legis 
lation  may  be  held  permanently. 

Further  :  Repeatedly,  of  late  years,  new  parties  have 
risen  to  demand  justice  in  government  and  improve- 
ment in  the  economic  situation.  One  such  movement 
defeated  but  makes  way  for  another.  Proof,  this,  that 
the  spirit  of  true  reform  is  virile  and  the  heart  of  the 
nation  pure.  The  progress  made,  in  numbers  and 
organization,  before  the  seeds  of  decay  were  sown  in 
the  United  Labor  party,  the  Union  Labor  party,  the 
Greenback-Labor  party,  the  Peoples' party  of  1S84,  and 
various  third-party  movements,  testify  to  the  readi- 
ness of  earnest  thousands  to  respond,  even  on  the  slight- 
est promise  of  victory,  to  the  call  for  radical  reform. 
That  in  such  movements  the  masses  are  incorruptible 
is  shown  in  the  fact  that  in  every  instance  one  of  the 


98  The  way  open 

chief  causes  of  failure  has  been  doubt  in  the  integ- 
rity of  leaders  given  to  machine  methods.  But  in 
direct  legislation,  machine  leaders  profit  nothing  for 
themselves,  hold  no  reins  of  party,  can  sell  no  votes, 
and  can  command  no  rewards  for  workers. 

Again  :  The  vast  organizations  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor  and  the  trades-unions  in  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  are  evidence  of  the  willingness  and  abil- 
ity of  wage-earners  to  cope  practically  with  national 
problems.  And  at  this  point  is  to  be  observed  a  fact  of 
capital  significance  to  advocates  of  pure  democracy. 
Whereas,  in  independent  political  movements,  sooner 
or  later  a  footing  has  been  obtained  by  a  machine,  re- 
sulting in  disintegration,  in  the  trades  organization, 
while  political  methods  may  occasionally  corrupt  lead- 
ers, the  politician  labor  leader  uniformly  finds  his 
fellow  workmen  turning  their  backs  on  him.  The 
organized  workers  not  only  distrust  the  politician  but 
detest  political  chicanery.  Such  would  equally  be 
the  case  did  the  wage-workers  carry  into  the  politi- 
cal field  the  direct  power  they  exert  in  their  unions^ 
And  in  politics  this  never-failing,  incorruptible  power 
of  the  whole  mass  of  organized  wage-workers  may 
be  exerted  by  direct  legislation.  Therewith  may  be 
had  politics  without  politicians.  As  direct  legislation 
advances,  the  machine  must  retire. 

Here,  then,  with  immediate  results  in  prospect  from 
political  action,  lies  encouragement  of  the  highest  de- 
gree— alike  to  the  organized  workers,  to  the  men 
grown  hopeless  of  political  reform,  and  to  the  men  in 


TO     PEACEFUL     REVOLUTION.  9Q 

active  rebellion  against  the  two  great  machine  ridden 
parties. 

Encouragement  founded  on  reason  is  an  inestima- 
ble practical  result.     Here,  not  only  may  rational  hope 
for  true  reform  be  inspired  ;  a  lively  certainty,  based 
on   ascertained  fact,  may  be  felt.     All  men  of  experi- 
ence who  have  read  these  pages  w^U  have  seen  con- 
firmed something  of  their  own  observations  in  direct 
legislation,  and  will  have  accepted  as  plainly  logical 
sequences  the  developments  of  the  institution  in  Swit- 
zerland.    The  New  Englander  will  have  learned  how 
the  purifying  principles    of   his   town   meeting  have 
been  made  capable  of  extension.     The  member  of  a 
labor  organization  will  have  observed  how  the  simple 
democracy  of  his  union  or  assembly   may  be   trans- 
ferred to  the  State.     The  "local  optionist "  will  have 
recognized,   working    in    broader    and    more    varied 
fields,  a  well  tried  and  satisfactory  instrument.     The 
college  man  will  have  recalled  the  fact  that  wherever 
has  gone  the  Greek  letter  fraternity,  there,  in  each  so- 
ciety as  a  whole,  and  in  each  chapter  with  respect  to 
every  special  act,  have  gone  the  Initiative  and  the  Ref- 
erendum.    And  every  member  of  any  body  of  equal 
associates  must  perceive  that  the  first,  natural  circum- 
stance to  the  continued  existence  of  that  body  in  its 
integrity  must  be  that  each  individual  may  propose  a 
measure  and  that  the  majority  may  accept  or  reject 
it ;  and  this  is  the   simple  principle  of  direct  legisla- 
tion.    Moreover,  any  mature  man,  east  or  west,  in  any 
locality,  may  recall  how  within  his  experience  a  com- 


loo  THE    WAY    OPEN 

munity's  vote  has  satisfactorily  put  vexatious  ques- 
tions at  rest.  With  the  recognition  of  every  such  fact, 
hope  will  rise  and  faith  in  the  proposed  methods  be 
made  more  firm. 

Abolition  of  the  Lawmaking  Monopoly. 

To  radical  reformers  further  encouragement  must 
come  with  continued  reflection  on  the  importance  to 
them  of  direct  legislation.  In  general,  such  reformers 
have  failed  to  recognize  that,  before  any  project  of 
social  reconstruction  can  be  followed  out  to  the  end, 
there  stands  a  question  antecedent  to  every  other. 
It  is  the  abolition  of  the  lawmaking  monopoly.  Un- 
til that  monopoly  is  ended,  no  law  favorable  to  the 
masses  can  be  secure.  Direct  legislation  would  de- 
stroy this  parent  of  monopolies.  It  gone,  then  would 
follow  the  chiefer  evils  of  governmental  mechanism — 
class  rule,  ring  rule,  extravagance,  jobbery,  nepotism, 
the  spoils  system,  every  jot  of  the  professional  trading 
politician's  influence.  To  effect  these  ends,  all  schools 
of  political  reformers  might  unite.  For  immediate 
purposes,  help  might  come  even  from  that  host  of  con- 
servatives who  believe  all  will  be  well  if  officials  are 
honest.  Direct  majority  rule  attained,  inviting  oppor- 
tunities for  radical  work  would  soon  lie  open.  How, 
may  readily  be  seen. 

The  New  England  town  collects  its  own  taxes  ;  it 
manages  its  local  schools,  roads,  bridges,  police,  public 
lighting  and  water  supply.  In  similar  affairs  the  Swiss 
commune  is  autonomous.     On  the  Pacific  coast  a  ten- 


TO  PEACEFUL  REVOLUTION.  lOl 

dency  is  to  accord  to  places  of  10,000  or  20,000  inhabi- 
tants their  own  charters.  Throughout  the  country,  in 
many  instances,  towns  and  counties  settle  for  them- 
selves questions  of  prohibition,  license,  and  assess- 
ments ;  questions  of  help  to  corporations  and  of  local 
public  improvement.  Thus  in  measure  as  the  Referen- 
dum comes  into  play  does  the  circumscription  practic- 
ing it  become  a  complete  community.  In  other  words, 
with  direct  legislation  rises  local  self-government. 

The  Principles  of  Local  Self-  Government. 

From  even  the  conservative  point  of  view,  local  self- 
government  has  many  advantages.  In  this  country, 
the  glaring  evils  of  the  State,  especially  those  forming 
obstacles  to  political  improvement  and  social  progress, 
come  down  from  sources  above  the  people.  Under  the 
existing  centralization  whole  communities  may  pro- 
test against  governmental  abuses,  be  practically  a  unit 
in  opposition  to  them,  and  yet  be  hopelessly  subject 
to  them.  Such  centralization  is  despotism.  It  forms 
as  well  the  opportunity  for  the  demagogue  of  to-day — 
for  him  who  as  suppliant  for  votes  is  a  wheedler  and 
as  politician  and  lawgiver  a  trickster.  Centralization 
confuses  the  voter,  baffles  the  honest  newspaper,  fo- 
ments partisanship,  and  cheats  the  masses  of  their 
will.  On  the  other  hand,  to  the  extent  that  local  inde- 
pendence is  acquired,  a  democratic  community  mini- 
mizes every  such  evil.  In  naturally  guarding  itself 
against  external  interference,  it  seeks  in  its  connec- 
tion with  other  communities  the  least  common  politi- 


102  THE    WAV    OPEN 

cal  bonds.  It  is  watchful  of  the  home  rule  principle. 
Under  its  local  self-government,  g-overnment  plainly 
becomes  no  more  than  the  management  of  what  are 
wholly  public  interests.  The  justice  of  lopping 
off  from  government  all  matters  not  the  common  af- 
fairs of  the  citizens  then  becomes  apparent.  The 
character  of  every  man  in  the  community  being 
known,  public  duties  are  intrusted  with  men  who 
truly  represent  the  citizens.  The  mere  demagogue 
is  soon  well  known.  Bribery  becomes  treachery  to 
one's  neighbor.  The  folly  of  partisanship  is  seen. 
Public  issues,  usually  relating  to  but  local  matters,  are 
for  the  most  part  plain  questions.  The  press,,  no 
longer  absorbed  in  vague,  far-off  politics,  aids,  not  the 
politicians,  but  the  citizens.  Reasons,  every  one  of 
these,  for  even  the  conservative  to  aid  in  establishing 
local  self-government. 

But  the  radical,  looking  further  than  the  conserva- 
tive, will  see  far  greater  opportunities.  In  local  self- 
government  with  direct  legislation,  every  possibility 
for  his  success  that  hope  can  suggest  maybe  perceived. 
If  not  in  one  locality,  then  in  another,  whatever  politi- 
cal projects  are  attainable  within  such  limits  by  his 
school  of  philosophy  may  be  converted  by  him  and  his 
co-workers  from  theory  to  fact.  Thence  on,  if  his 
philosophy  is  practicable,  the  field  should  naturally 
widen. 

The  political  philosophy  I  would  urge  on  my  fellow- 
citizens  is  summed  up  in  the  neglected  fundamental 
principle  of  this  republic  :    Freedom  and  equal  rights. 


TO  PEACEFUL  REVOLUTION.  I03 

The  true  point  of  view  from  which  to  see  the  need  of 
the  application  of  this  principle  is  from  the  position 
of  the  unemployed,  propertyless  wage-worker.  How 
local  self-government  and  direct  legislation  might 
promptly  invest  this  slave  of  society  with  his  pri- 
mary rights,  and  pave  the  way  for  further  rights, 
may,  step  by  step,  be  traced. 

The  Relation  of  Wages  to  Political  Conditions. 

The  wages  scale  pivots  on  the  strike.  The  employ- 
er's order  for  a  reduction  is  his  strike  ;  to  be  effective, 
a  reserve  of  the  unemployed  must  be  at  his  command. 
The  wage-worker's  demand  for  an  increase  is  his 
strike  ;  to  be  effective  it  must  be  backed  up  by  the  in- 
dispensableness  of  his  services  to  the  employer.  Ac- 
cordingly as  the  worker  forces  up  the  scale  of  wages, 
he  is  the  more  free,  independent,  and  gainer  of  his 
product.  To  show  the  most  direct  way  to  the  condi- 
tions in  which  workers  may  command  steady  work  and 
raise  their  wages,  this  book  is  written.  For  the  wages 
question  equitably  settled,  the  foundation  for  every 
remaining  social  reform  is  laid. 

To-day,  in  the  United  States,  in  scores,  nay,  hun- 
dreds, of  industrial  communities  the  wage-working 
class  is  in  the  majority.  The  wage-workers  com- 
monly believe,  what  is  true,  that  they  are  the  victims 
of  injustice.  As  yet,  however,  no  project  for  restoring 
their  rights  has  been  successful.  All  the  radical  means 
suggested  have  been  beyond  their  reach.  But  in  so 
far  as  a  single  community  may  exercise  equal  rights 


I04  THE    WAY    OPEN 

and   self-government,    through    these   means   it   may- 
approximate  to  just  social  arrangements. 

Any  American  city  of  50,000  inhabitants  may  be 
taken  as  illustrative  of  all  American  industrial  com- 
munities. In  such  a  city,  the  economical  and  political 
conditions  are  typical.  The  immediate  commercial 
interests  of  the  buyers  of  labor,  the  employers,  are 
opposed  to  those  of  the  sellers  of  labor,  the  employed. 
To  control  the  price  of  labor,  each  of  these  parties  in 
the  labor  market  resorts  to  whatever  measures  it  finds 
within  command.  The  employers  in  many  branches 
of  industry  actually,  and  emplo5^ers  in  general  tacitly, 
combine  against  the  labor  organizations.  On  the 
wage-workers'  side,  these  organizations  are  the  sole 
means,  except  a  few  well-nigh  futile  laws,  yet  devel- 
oped to  raise  wages  and  shorten  the  work  day.  In 
case  of  a  strike,  the  employers,  to  assist  the  police  in 
intimidating  the  strikers,  may  engage  a  force  of  armed 
so-called  detectives.  Simply,  perhaps,  for  inviting 
non-unionists  to  cease  work,  the  strikers  are  subject  to 
imprisonment.  Trial  for  conspiracy  may  follow  arrest, 
the  judges  allied  by  class  interests  with  the  employers. 
The  newspapers,  careful  not  to  offend  advertisers, 
and  looking  to  the  well-to-do  for  the  mass  of  their 
readers,  may  be  inclined  to  exert  an  influence  against 
the  strikers.  The  solidarity  of  the  wage-workers  in- 
complete, even  many  of  these  may  regard  the  fate  of 
the  strikers  with  indifference.  In  such  situation,  a 
strike  of  the  wage-workers  may  be  made  to  appear  to 


TO  PEACEFUL  REVOLUTION.  105 

all  except  those  closely  concerned  as  an  assault  on  the 
bulwarks  of  society. 

But  what  are  the  bulwarks  of  society  directly  arrayed 
against  striking  wage- workers  ?  They  arc  a  ring  of 
employers,  a  ring  of  officials  enforcing  class  law  made 
by  compliant  representatives  at  the  bidding  of  shrewd 
employers,  and  a  ring  of  public  sentiment  makers — 
largely  professional  men  whose  hopes  lie  with  wealthy 
patrons.  Behind  these  outer  barriers,  and  seldom 
affected  by  even  widespread  strikes,  lies  the  citadel 
in  which  dwell  the  monopolists. 

Such,  in  outline,  are  the  intermingled  political  and 
economic  conditions  common  to  all  American  indus- 
trial centres.  But  above  every  other  fact,  one  salient 
fact  appears  :  On  the  wage-workers  falls  the  burthen 
of  class  law.  On  what,  then,  depends  the  wiping  out 
of  such  law  ?  Certainly  on  nothing  else  so  much  as  on 
the  force  of  the  wage-workers  themselves.  To  de- 
prive their  opponents -of  unjust  legal  advantages,  and 
to  invest  themselves  with  just  rights  of  which  they 
have  been  deprived,  is  a  task,  outside  their  labor  or- 
ganizations, to  be  accomplished  mainly  by  the  wage- 
workers.  It  is  their  task  as  citizens — their  political 
task.  With  direct  legislation  and  local  self-govern- 
ment, it  is,  in  considerable  degree,  a  feasible,  even  an 
easy,  task.  The  labor  organizations  might  supply  the 
framework  for  a  political  party,  as  was  done  in  New 
York  city  in  1886.  Then,  as  was  the  case  in  that  cam- 
paign, when  the  labor  parcy  polled  6S,ooo  votes,  even 
non-unionists   might   throw  in  the   reinforcement   of 


Io6  THE    WAY    OPEN 

their  otherwise  hurtful  strength.  Success  once  in 
sight,  the  organized  wage-workers  would  surely  find 
citizens  of  other  classes  helping  to  swell  their  vote 
And  in  the  straightforward  politics  of  direct  legisla- 
tion, the  labor  leaders  who  command  the  respect  of 
their  fellows  might,  without  danger  to  their  character 
and  influence,  go  boldly  to  the  front. 

The  Wage-  Workers  as  a  Political  Majority. 

Suppose  that  as  far  as  possible  our  industrial  city  of 
50,000  inhabitants  should  exercise  self-government 
with  direct  legislation.  Various  classes  seeking  to 
reform  common  abuses,  certain  general  reforms  would 
immediately  ensue.  If  the  city  should  do  what  the 
Swiss  have  done,  it  would  speedily  rid  its  adminis- 
tration of  unnecessary  ofhce-holders,  reduce  the  salar- 
ies of  its  higher  officials,  and  rescind  outstanding 
franchise  privileges.  If  the  municipality  should  have 
power  to  determine  its  own  methods  of  taxation,  as  is 
now  in  some  respects  the  case  in  Massachusetts  towns, 
and  toward  which  end  a  movement  has  begun  in  New 
York,  it  would  probably  imitate  the  Swiss  in  progres- 
sively taxing  the  higher-priced  real  estate,  inheri- 
tances, and  incomes.  If  the  wage-workers,  a  majority 
in  a  direct  vote,  should  demand  in  all  public  work  the 
short  hour  day,  they  would  get  it,  perhaps,  as  in  the 
Rockland  town  meeting,  without  question.  Further,  the 
wage-workers  might  vote  anti-Pinkerton  ordinances, 
cqmpel  during  strikes  the  neutrality  of  the  police,  and 
place  judges  from  their  own  ranks  in  at  least  the  local 


TO  PEACEFUL  REVOLUTION.  107 

courts.  These  tasks  partly  under  way,  a  change  in 
prevailing  social  ideas  would  pass  over  the  com- 
munity. The  press,  echo,  not  of  the  widest  spread 
sentiments,  but  of  controlling  public  opinion,  would 
open  its  columns  to  the  wage-working  class  come  to 
power.  And,  as  is  ever  so  when  the  wage-workers  are 
aggressive  and  probably  may  be  dominant,  the  social 
question  would  burn. 

The  Entire  Span  of  Equal  Rights. 

The  social  question  uppermost,  the  wage-workers — 
now  in  political  ascendency,  and  bent  on  getting  the 
full  product  of  their  labor — would  seek  further  to 
improve  their  vantage  ground.  Sooner  or  later  they 
would  inevitably  make  issue  of  the  most  urgent,  the 
most  persistent,  economic  evil,  local  as  well  as  gen- 
eral, the  inequality  of  rights  in  the  land.  They  would 
affirm  that,  were  the  land  of  the  community  in  use 
suitable  to  the  general  needs,  the  unemployed  would 
find  work  and  the  total  of  production  be  largely  in- 
creased. They  would  point  to  the  vacant  lots  in  and 
about  the  city,  held  on  speculation,  commonly  in 
American  cities  covering  a  greater  area  than  the  land 
improved,  and  denounce  so  unjust  a  system  of  land 
tenure.  They  could  demonstrate  that  the  price  of 
the  land  represented  for  the  most  part  but  the  power 
of  the  owners  to  wring  from  the  producers  of  the  city, 
merely  for  space  on  which  to  live  and  work,  a  consider- 
able portion  of  their  product.  They  could  with  reason 
declare  that  the  withholding  from  use  of  the  vacant 


I08  THE    WAY    OPEN 

land  of  the  locality  was  the  main  cause  of  local  pov- 
erty. And  they  would  demand  that  legal  advantages 
in  the  local  vacant  lands  should  forthwith  cease. 

In  bringing  to  an  end  the  local  land  monopoly, 
however,  justice  could  be  done  the  landholders.  Un- 
questionably the  fairest  measure  to  them,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  most  direct  method  of  giving  to  city 
producers,  if  not  free  access  to  land,  the  next  practica- 
ble thing  to  it,  would  be  for  the  municipality  to  con- 
vert a  part  of  the  local  vacant  land  into  public  prop- 
erty, and  to  open  it  in  suitable  plots  to  such  citizens 
as  should  become  occupiers.  Sufficient  land  for  this 
purpose  might  be  acquired  through  eminent  domain. 
The  purchase  money  could  be  forthcoming  from  sev- 
eral sources — from  progressive  taxation  in  the  direct 
forms  already  mentioned,  from  the  city's  income  from 
franchises,  and  from  the  savings  over  the  wastes  of 
administration  under  present  methods. 

From  the  standpoint  of  equal  rights  there  need  be 
no  difficulty  in  meeting  the  arguments  certain  to  be 
brought  against  this  proposed  course — such  sophistical 
arguments  as  that  it  is  not  the  business  of  a  govern- 
ment to  take  property  from  some  citizens  to  give  to 
others.  If  the  unemployed,  propertyless  wage-worker 
has  a  right  to  live,  he  has  the  right  to  sustain  life.  To 
sustain  life  independently  of  other  men's  permission, 
access  to  natural  resources  is  essential.  This  primary 
right  being  denied  the  wage-workers  as  a  class,  any  or 
all  of  whom,  if  unemployed,  might  soon  be  property- 
less,  they  might  in  justice  proceed  to  enforce  it.     To 


TO  PEACEFUL  REVOLUTION.  IO9 

enforce  it  by  means  involving  so  little  friction  as  those 
here  proposed  ought  to  win,  not  opposition,  but  ap- 
proval. 

Equal  rights  once  conceded  as  just,  this  reasoning 
cannot  be  refuted.  Discussed  in  economic  literature 
since  before  the  day  of  Adam  Smith,  it  has  withstood 
every  form  of  assault.  If  it  has  not  been  acted  on  in 
the  Old  World,  it  is  because  the  wage-workers  there, 
ignorant  and  in  general  deprived  of  the  right  to  vote, 
have  been  helpless  ;  and  if  not  in  the  New,  because, 
first,  until  within  recent  years  the  free  western  lands, 
attracting  the  unemployed  and  helping  to  maintain 
wages,  in  a  measure  gave  labor  access  to  nature,  and, 
secondly,  since  the  practical  exhaustion  of  the  free  pub- 
lic domain  the  industrial  wage-workers  have  not  per- 
ceived how,  through  politics,  to  carry  out  their  convic- 
tions on  the  land  question. 

Our  reasoning  is  further  strengthened  by  law  and 
custom  in  state  and  nation.  In  nearly  every  state,  the 
constitution  declares  that  the  original  and  ultimate 
ownership  of  the  land  lies  with  all  its  people  ;  and 
hence  the  method  of  administering  the  land  is  at  all 
times  an  open  public  question.  As  to  the  nation  at 
large,  its  settled  policy  and  long-continued  custom 
support  the  principle  that  all  citizens  have  in- 
alienable rights  in  the  land.  Instead  of  selling  the 
national  domain  in  quantities  to  suit  purchasers,  the 
government  has  held  it  open  free  to  agricultural  la- 
borers, literally  millions  of  men  being  thus  given  access 
to  the  soil.    Moreover,  in  thirty-seven  of  the  forty-four 


no  THE    WAY    OPEN 

states,  execution  for  debt  cannot  entirely  deprive  a 
man  of  his  homestead,  the  value  exempt  in  many  of 
the  states  being  thousands  of  dollars.  Thus  the  gen- 
eral welfare  has  dictated  the  building  up  and  the  se- 
curing of  a  home  for  every  laboring  citizen. 

In  line,  then,  with  established  American  principles 
is  the  proposition  for  municipal  lands.  And  if  munici- 
palities have  extended  to  capitalists  privileges  of  many 
kinds,  even  granting  them  gratis  sites  for  manufac- 
tories, and  for  terms  of  years  exempting  such  real  es- 
tate from  taxation,  why  not  accord  to  the  wage-work- 
ers at  least  their  primary  natural  rights  ?  If  any  prop- 
erty be  exempted  from  taxation,  why  not  the  homesite 
below  a  certain  fixed  value  ?  And  if,  for  the  public 
benefit,  municipalities  provide  parks,  museums,  and 
libraries,  why  not  give  each  producer  a  homesite — a 
footing  on  the  earth  ?  He  who  has  not  this  is  deprived 
of  the  first  right  to  do  that  by  which  he  must  live, 
namely,  labor. 

Effects  of  Municipal  Lafid. 

A  city  public  domain,  open  to  citizen  occupiers  un- 
der just  stipulations,  would  in  several  directions  have 
far-reaching  results. 

Should  this  domain  be  occupied  by,  say,  one  thou- 
sand families  of  a  population  of  50,000,  an  immediate 
result,  affecting  the  whole  city,  would  be  a  fall  in 
rents.  In  fact,  the  mere  existence  of  the  public  do- 
mam,  with  a  probability  that  his  tenants  would  re- 
move to  it,  might  cause  a  landlord  to  reduce  his  rents, 


TO     PEACEFUL     REVOLUTION.  m 

Besides,  the  value  of  all  land,  in  the  city  and  about  it, 
held  on  speculation,  would  fall.  Save  in  instances  of 
particular  advantage,  the  price  of  unimproved  resi- 
dence lets  would  gravitate  toward  the  cost,  all  thing? 
considered,  of  residence  lots  in  the  public  domain. 
This,  for  these  reasons  :  The  corner  in  land  v.  ould  be 
broken.  Home  builders  would  pay  a  private  owner  no 
more  for  a  lot  than  the  cost  of  a  similar  one  in  the  pub- 
lic area.  As  houses  went  up  on  the  public  domain,  the 
chances  of  landholders  to  sell  to  builders  would  be  di- 
minished. Sellers  of  land,  besides  competing  with  the 
public  land,  would  then  compete  with  increased  activ- 
ity with  one  another.  Finally,  just  taxation  of  their 
land,  valueless  as  a  speculation,  would  oblige  landown- 
ers to  sell  it  or  to  put  it  to  good  use. 

Even  should  the  growth  of  the  city  be  rapid,  the 
value  of  land  in  private  hands  could  in  general  ad- 
vance but  little,  if  at  all.  With  the  actual  demands  of 
an  increased  population,  the  public  domain  might  from 
time  to  time  be  enlarged  ;  but  not,  it  may  reasonably 
be  assumed,  at  a  rate  that  would  give  rise  to  an  up- 
ward tendency  of  prices  in  the  face  of  the  above-men- 
tioned factors  contributing  to  a  downward  tendency. 

At  this  point  it  may  be  well  to  remember  that,  con- 
ditions of  land  purchase  by  the  city  being  subject  to 
the  Referendum,  the  buying  could  hardly  be  accom- 
panied by  corrupt  bargaining. 

When  the  effect  of  the  public  land  in  depressing 
land  values,  in  other  words  in  enabling  producers  to 
retain  the  more  of  their  product,  was  seen,  private  as 


THE    WAY    OPEN 


well  as  public  agencies  might  aid  in  enlarging  the 
scope  of  that  effect.  The  philanthropic  might  transfer 
land  to  the  municipality,  preferring  to  help  restore 
just  social  conditions  rather  than  to  aid  in  charities 
that  leave  the  world  with  more  poor  than  ever  ;  the 
city  might  provide  for  a  gradual  conversion,  in  the 
course  of  time,  of  all  the  land  within  its  limits  to 
public  control,  first  selecting,  with  the  end  in  view, 
tracts  of  little  market  value,  which,  open  to  occupiers, 
would  assist  in  keeping  down  the  value  of  lands  held 
privately. 

But  the  more  striking  results  of   city  public  land 
would  lie  in  another  direction.     The  spontaneous  ef- 
forts of  each  individual  to  increase  and  to  secure  the 
product  of  his  labor  would  turn  the  current  of  produc- 
tion away  from  the  monopolists  and  toward  the  pro- 
ducers. With  a  lot  in  the  public  domain,  a  wage-worker 
might  soon  live  in  his  own  cottage.     As  the  settler 
often  did  in  the  West,  to  acquire  a  home  he  might  first 
build  two  or  four  rooms  as  the  rear,  and,  living  in  it, 
with  later  savings  put  up  the  front.     A  house  and  a 
vegetable  garden,  with  the  increased  consequent  thrift 
rarely  in  such  situation  lacking,  would  add  a  large 
fraction  to  his  year's  earnings.     Pasture  for  a  cow  in 
suburban  city  land  would  add  yet  more.     Then  would 
this  wage-earner,  now  his  own  landlord  and  in  part  a 
direct    producer   from   the    soil,   withdraw   his    chil- 
dren from  the  labor  market,  where  they  compete  for 
work  perhaps  with  himself,  and    send    them    on   to 
school. 


TO  PEACEFUI,  REVOLUTION.  II3 

What  would  now  happen  should  the  wage-workers 
of  the  city  demand  higher  wages  ?  It  is  hardly  to  be 
supposed  that  any  industrial  centre  could  reach  the 
stage  of  radical  reform  contemplated  at  this  point 
much  in  advance  of  others.  When  the  labor  organiza- 
tions throughout  the  country  take  hold  of  direct  legis- 
lation, and  taste  of  its  successes,  they  will  nowhere 
halt.  They  will  no  more  hesitate  than  does  a  conquer- 
ing army.  Learning  what  has  been  done  in  wSwitzer- 
land,  they  will  go  the  lengths  of  the  Swiss  radicals 
and,  with  more  elbow  room,  further.  Hence,  when  in 
one  industrial  centre  the  governing  workers  should 
seek  better  terms,  similar  demands  from  fellow  labor- 
ers, as  able  to  enforce  them,  would  be  heard  elsewhere. 

The  employer  of  our  typical  city,  even  now  often  un- 
able to  find  outside  the  unions  the  unemployed  labor 
he  must  have,  would  then,  should  he  attempt  it,  to  a 
certainty  fail.  The  thrifty  wage-working  householder, 
today  a  tenant  fearful  of  loss  of  work,  could  then  strike 
and  stay  out.  The  situation  would  resemble  that  in 
the  West  twenty  years  ago,  when  open  land  made  the 
laborer  his  own  master  and  wages  double  what  they 
are  now.  Wages,  then,  would  perforce  be  moved  up- 
ward, and  hours  be  shortened,  and  a  long  step  be  made 
toward  that  state  of  things  in  which  two  employers 
offer  work  to  one  employe.  And,  legal  and  social  forces 
no  longer  irresistibly  opposed  to  the  wage-workers, 
thenceforth  wages  would  advance.  At  every  stage 
they  would  tend  to  the  maximum  possible  under  the 
improved   conditions.     In  the  end,  under   fully  equal 


114  THE    WAY    OPEN 

conditions,  everywhere,  for  all  classes,  the  producer 
would  gather  to  himself  the  full  product  of  his  labor. 

The  average  business  man,  too,  of  the  city  of  our 
illustration,  himself  a  producer — that  is,  a  help  to  the 
consumer — would  under  the  better  conditions  reap  new 
opportunities.  Far  less  than  now  would  he  fear  failure 
through  bad  debts  and  hard  times  ;  through  the  wage- 
workers'  larger  earnings,  he  would  obtain  a  larger  vol- 
ume of  trade  ;  he  would  otherwise  naturally  share  in 
the  generally  increased  production  ;  and  he  would 
participate  in  the  common  benefits  from  the  better 
local  government. 

But  the  disappearance  of  the  local  monopolist  would 
be  predestined.  The  owner  of  local  franchises  would 
already  have  gone.  The  local  land  monopolist  would 
have  seen  his  land  values  diminished.  In  every  such 
case,  the  monopolist's  loss  would  be  the  producer's 
gain.  The  aggregate  annual  earnings  of  all  the  city's 
producers  (the  wage-workers,  the  land-workers,  and 
the  men  in  productive  business)  would  rise  toward 
their  natural  just  aggregate- — all  production.  As  be- 
tween the  various  classes  within  the  city,  a  condition 
approximating  to  justice  in  political  and  economic  ar- 
rangements would  now  prevail. 

What  would  thus  be  likely  to  happen  in  our  typical 
city  of  50,000  inhabitants  would  also,  in  greater  or 
less  degree,  be  possible  in  all  industrial  towns  and 
cities.  In  every  such  place,  self-government  and  di- 
rect legislation  could  solve  the  more  pressing  imme- 
diate phases  of  the  labor  question  and  creote  the  local 


TO  PEACEFUL  REVOLUTION.  I15 

conditions  favorable  to  remodelinj^,  and  as  far  as  pos- 
sible abolishing,  the  superstructure  of  government. 

Wider  Applications  of  These  Principles  and  Methods. 

The  political  and  economic  arrangements  extending 
beyond  the  control  of  the  municipalities  would  now, 
if  they  had  not  done  so  before,  challenge  attention.   In 
taking  tip  with  reform  in  this  wider  field,  the  indus- 
trial wage-workers  would  come  in  contact  with  those 
farmers  who  are  demanding  radical  reforms  in  state 
and  nation.     As  the  sure  instrument  for  the  citizen- 
ship of  a  state,  direct  legislation  could  again  with  con- 
fidence be  employed.     No  serious  opposition,  in  fact  or 
reason,  could  be  brought  against  it.     That  the  mass  of 
voters  might  prove  too  unwieldy  for  the  method  would 
be  an  assertion  to  be  instantly  refuted  by  Swiss  statis- 
tics.    In  Zurich,  the  most  radically  democratic  canton 
of  Switzerland,  the  people  number  339,000  ;  the  voters, 
80,000.     In  Berne,  which  has  the  obligatory  Referen- 
dum, the  population   is  539,000.     And  it  must  not  be 
overlooked  that  the  entire  Swiss  Confederation,  with 
600,000  voters,  now  has  both  Initiative  and  Referen- 
dum.    Hence,  in  any  state  of  the  Union,  direct  legisla- 
tion on  general  affairs  may  be  regarded  as  immedi- 
ately practicable,  while  in  many  of  the  smaller  states 
the  obligatory  Referendum  may  be   applied   to  par- 
ticulars.    And  even  in  the  most  populous  states,  when 
special  legislation  should  be  cast  aside,  and  local  legis- 
lation left  to  the  localities  affected,  complete  direct 


Il6  THE    WAY    OPEN 

leg-islation  need  be  no  more  unmanageable  than  in  the 
smallest. 

United  farmers,  wage-workers,  and  other  classes  of 
citizens,  in  the  light  of  these  facts,  might  naturally  de- 
mand direct  legislation".  Foreseeing  that  in  time  such 
union  will  be  inevitable,  v/hat  more  natural  for  the 
producing  classes  in  revolt  than  to  unite  today  in 
voting,  if  not  for  other  propositions,  at  least  for  direct 
legislation  and  home  rule  ?  These  forces  combined  in 
any  state,  it  seems  improbable  that  certain  political 
and  economic  measures  now  supported  by  farmer  and 
wage-worker  alike  could  long  fail  to  become  law.  Al- 
ready, under  the  principle  that  "  rights  should  be 
equal  to  all  and  special  privileges  be  had  by  none," 
farmers'  and  wage-workers'  parties  are  making  the 
following  demands  :  That  taxation  be  not  used  to  build 
up  one  interest  or  class  at  the  expense  of  another  ; 
that  the  public  revenues  be  no  more  than  necessary 
for  government  expenditures  ;  that  the  agencies  of 
transportation  and  communication  be  operated  at  the 
lowest  cost  of  service  ;  that  no  privileges  in  banking 
be  permitted  ;  that  woman  have  the  vote  wherever 
justice  gives  it  to  man  ;  that  no  force  of  police,  mar- 
shals, or  militiamen  not  commissioned  by  their  home 
authorities  be  permitted  anywhere  to  be  employed  ; 
that  monopoly  in  every  form  be  abolished  and  the 
personal  rights  of  every  individual  respected.  These 
demands  are  all  in  agreement  with  the  spirit  of  free- 
dom. Along  the  lines  they  mark  out,  the  future  suc- 
cesses of  the  radical  social  reformers  will  most  prob- 


TO  PEACEFUL  REVOLUTION.  I17 

ably  come.  But  if,  in  response  to  a  call  nowadays  fre- 
quently heard,  the  many  incipient  parties  should  de- 
cide to  unite  on  one  or  a  few  things,  is  it  not  clear  that 
in  natural  order  the  first  reforms  needed  arc  direct  le- 
gislation and  local  self-government  ? 

To  a  party  logically  following  the  principle  of  equal 
rights,  the  progress  in  Switzerland  under  direct  le- 
gislation would  form  an  invaluable  guide.  The  Swiss 
methods  of  controlling  the  railroads  and  banks  of 
issue,  and  of  operating  the  telegraph  and  telephone 
services,  deserve  study  and,  to  the  extent  that  our  in- 
stitutions admit,  imitation.  The  organization  of  the 
Swiss  State  and  its  subdivisions  is  simple  and  natural. 
The  success  of  their  executive  councils  may  in  this 
country  assist  in  raising  up  the  power  of  the  people  as 
against  one  man  power.  The  fact  that  the  cantons 
have  no  senates  and  that  a  second  chamber  is  an  ob- 
stacle to  direct  legislation  may  here  hasten  the  aboli- 
tion of  these  nurseries  of  aristocracy. 

With  the  advance  of  progress  under  direct  legisla- 
tion, attention  would  doubtless  be  attracted  in  the 
United  States,  as  it  has  been  in  Switzerland,  to  the 
nicer  shades  of  justice  to  minorities  and  to  the  broader 
fields  of  internal  improvement.  As  in  the  cantons  of 
Ticino  and  Neuchatel,  our  legislative  bodies  might  be 
opened  to  minority  representatives.  As  in  the  Swiss 
Confederation,  the  great  forests  might  be  declared  for- 
ever the  inheritance  of  the  nation.  What  public  lands 
yet  remain  in  each  state  might  be  withheld  from 
private  ownership  except  on  occupancy  and  use,  and 


Il8  THE    WAY    OPEN 

the  area  might  be  so  increased  as  to  enable  every  pro- 
ducer desiring-  it  to  exercise  the  natural  right  of  free 
access  to  the  soil.  Then  the  right  to  labor,  now  being 
demanded  through  the  Initiative  by  the  Swiss  work- 
ingmen's  party,  might  here  be  made  an  admitted  fact. 
And  as  is  now  also  being  done  in  Switzerland,  the 
public  control  might  be  extended  to  water  powers  and 
similar  resources  of  nature. 

Thus  in  state  and  nation  might  practicable  radical 
reforms  make  their  way.  From  the  beginning,  as  has 
been  seen,  benefits  would  be  widespread.  It  might  not 
be  long  before  the  most  crying  social  evils  were  at  an 
end.  Progressive  taxation  and  abolition  of  monopoly 
privileges  would  cause  the  great  private  fortunes  of 
the  country  to  melt  away,  to  add  to  the  producers' 
earnings.  On  a  part  of  the  soil  being  made  free  of 
access,  the  land-hungry  would  withdraw  from  the 
cities,  relieving  the  overstocked  labor  markets.  Pov- 
erty of  the  able-bodied  willing  to  work  might  soon  be 
even  more  rare  than  in  this  country  half  a  century 
ago,  since  methods  of  production  at  that  time  were 
comparatively  primitive  and  the  free  land  only  in  the 
West.  If  Switzerland,  small  in  area,  naturally  a 
poor  country,  and  with  a  dense  population,  has  gone 
far  toward  banishing  pauperism  and  plutocracy,  what 
wealth  for  all  might  not  be  reckoned  in  America,  so  fer- 
tile, so  broad,  so  sparsely  populated. 

And  thus  the  stages  are  before  us  in  the  course  of 
which  the  coming  just  society  may  gradually  be 
established — that  society  in  which  the  individual  shall 


TO  PEACEFUL  REVOLUTION.  II9 

attain  his  highest  liberty  and  development,  and  con- 
sequently his  greatest  happiness.  As  lovers  of  free- 
dom even  now  foresee,  in  that  perfect  society  each 
man  will  be  master  of  himself  ;  each  will  act  on  hs 
own  initiative  and  control  the  full  product  of  his  toil. 
In  that  society,  the  producer's  product  will  not,  as 
now,  be  diminished  by  interest,  unearned  profits,  or 
monopoly  rent  of  natural  resources.  Interest  will  tend 
to  disappear  because  the  products  of  labor  in  the  hands 
of  every  producer  will  be  abundant — so  abundant  that, 
instead  of  a  borrower  paying  interest  for  a  loan,  a 
lender  may  at  times  pay,  as  for  an  accommodation,  for 
having  his  products  preserved.  Unearned  profits  will 
tend  to  disappear  because,  no  monopolies  being  in  pri- 
vate hands,  and  free  industry  promoting  voluntary  co- 
operation, few  opportunities  will  exist  for  such  prof- 
its. Monopoly  rent  will  disappear  because,  the  natural 
right  to  labor  on  the  resources  of  nature  made  a  legal 
right,  no  man  will  be  able  to  exact  from  another  a  toll 
for  leave  to  labor.  Whatever  rent  may  arise  from  dif- 
erences  in  the  qualities  of  natural  resources  will  be 
made  a  community  fund,  perhaps  to  be  substituted  for 
taxes  or  to  be  divided  among  the  producers. 

The  natural  political  bond  in  such  a  society  is  plain. 
Wherein  he  interferes  with  no  other  man,  every  indi- 
vidual possessing  faculty  will  be  regarded  as  his  own 
supreme  sovereign.  Free,  because  land  is  free,  when 
he  joins  a  community  he  will  ente**  into  social  rela- 
tions with  Its  citizens  by  contract.  He  will  legislate 
(form  contracts)  with  the  rest  of  his  immediate  com- 


I20  THE    WAY    OPEN    TO    PEACEFUL    REVOLUTIOlSf. 

munity  in  person.  Every  community,  in  all  that  re- 
lates peculiarly  to  itself,  will  be  self-governing.  Where 
one  community  shall  have  natural  political  bonds  with 
another,  or  in  any  respect  form  with  several  others  a 
greater  community,  the  circumscription  affected  will 
legislate  through  central  committees  and  a  direct  vote 
of  the  citizenship.  Executives  and  other  officials  will 
be  but  stewards.  In  a  society  so  constituted,  commu- 
nities that  reject  the  elements  of  political  success  will 
languish  ;  free  men  will  leave  them.  The  commu- 
nities that  accept  the  elements  of  success,  becoming 
examples  through  their  prosperity,  will  be  imitated  ; 
and  thus  the  momentum  of  progress  will  be  increased. 
Communities  free,  state  boundaries  as  now  known 
will  be  wiped  out  ;  and  in  the  true  light  of  rights  in 
voting — the  rights  of  associates  in  a  contract  to  ex- 
press their  ghoice — few  questions  will  affect  wide  ter- 
ritories. Rarely  will  any  question  be,  in  the  sense  the 
word  is  now  used,  national  ;  the  ballot-box  may  never 
unite  the  citizens  of  the  Atlantic  coast  with  those  of 
the  Pacific.  Yet,  in  this  decomposition  of  the  State 
into  its  natural  units — in  this  resolving  of  society  into 
its  constituent  elements — may  be  laid  the  sole  true, 
natural,  lasting  basis  of  the  universal  republic,  the 
primary  principle  of  which  can  be  no  other  thing  than 
freedom. 


A     Concept     of    Political    Justice. 

By  J.  W.  SULLIVAN. 


58    Pages ;     1 0    Cents. 

I.— JUSTICE  AND    PROPERTY. 

II.— JUSTICE   AND   THE   STATE. 

III.— THE  EXISTING  STATE  AN  AGENCY  OF  INJUSTICE. 
IV.— UNDER  A  JUST  STATE,  LABOR  WOULD  COMMAND 
ITS  FULL  VALUE,  MEASURED  BY  LABOR. 

v.— THE  PROGRESS  IN  SOCIETY  TOWARD  JUSTICE. 


ADDRESS    TWENTIETH    CENTURY. 


The  "  Why   I    Ams." 


CONTAINING 

Why  I  am  a  Protectionist.     By  Van  Buren  Dens'.ow. 

Free  Trader.     By  Prof.  William  G.  Sumner. 
Single-Taxer.     By  William  Lloyd  Garrison. 
Socialist.     By  Laurence  Gronlund. 
Christian  Socialist.     By  Rev.  W.  D.  P.  Bliss,  D.D. 
Nationalist.     By  Burnette  G.  Haskell. 
Communist.     By  John  Most. 
Social  Revolutionist.     By  Dyer  D.  Lum. 
an  Anarchist.     By  Benj.  R.  Tucker, 
an  Individualist.     By  Frank  Q.  Sluart. 
an  Opportunist.     By  J.  W.  Sullivan. 
I  an  Anarchist  work  wi.h  Socialists.     By  William  Holmes. 
"     Anarchist  will  not  work  with  Socialists.  By  Victor  Yarros. 

Only     1 5    Cents. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  PUB.  CO.,  NEW  YORK 


A  Strike  of   Millionaires 

AOAINSX    MINKRS  ; 


THE  •••  STORY  •••  OF  ••  SPRING  ••'  VALLEY. 

By    HENRY    D.     LLOYD. 


This  book  tells  how  the  Spring  Valley  miners  were 
starved  into  actual  slavery.  It  is  the  story  of  a  mon- 
strous and  inhuman  crime.  It  deals  not  with  theories 
but  with  facts,  figures  and  names. 

IT    IS   A    POWERFUL    AND    PATHETIC    BOOK. 


264  Pages.     Paper,  50  cents ;  doth,  $1.     Sent  post-paid  to  any 
address  on  receipt  of  price,  by 


Twentietli  Century  Publishing  Co.,  New  York. 


''  A  Tramp   in  Society." 


ROBT.   H.   COWDKH^ 


ego  pp.     50c. ;  clotK,  $1.25. 


A  new  • '  Reform  **  novel . 
by  a  well-known  editorial 
writer  and  former  candi- 
riate  of  the  United  Labor 
Party  for  the  Presidency 
of  the  United  states. 


"  There  Is  not  an  uninterest- 
ing page  in  the  book,"  is  the 
verdict  oi  Hugh  O.  Pentecost. 


"  Since  the  days  that  Mrs.  Stowe  wrote  the  4oom  of  the  slave- 
driver  in  '  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,'  no  authoi-  has  struck  a  more 
vigorous  blow  in  favor  of  the  rights  of  tLe  laborer." — Chicago 
Inter-Ocean. 


"  DRIVEN  FROM  SEA  TO  SEA." 

By    C.     C.     post. 

"Mr.  Post's  story  is  as  tjathetic  as  its  title  indicates,  and  must 
touch  a  responsive  chord  in  every  justice-loving  heart.  The  mass 
of  our  people  seem  either  ignorant  of  or  indiflEerent  to  the  cruel 
cotflict  now  raging  between  honest  sons  of  toil  and  ruthless  cor- 
porations. Lands  are  redeemed  from  the  desert,  tilled  and  planted, 
only  to  btcome  the  prey  to  felonious  railroad  magnates,  who  buy. 
to  serve  their  villanies,  senators  and  congressmen,  as  openly  as  if 
these,  our  rulers,  were  slaves  exposed  for  sale  in  market-places. 
Let  no  one  be  deterred  from  reading  this  valuable  book."— Chicago 
Tribune. 

414  pages.     Many  illustrations.     50  cents  ;  cloth,  $1.25. 

TWENTIETH   CENTURY  PUBLISHING    COMPANY. 


'pHE  PRESENT  AND  FUTURE  REPUBLIC  OF  NORTH 
AMERICA. 


''  Rational   Communism. 


By    a    capitalist. 


TITLES    OF    CHAPTERS : 


The  Vision,  Present  External  Appearance  of  Our  Re- 
public, Government  and  Laws,  Finance,  Public 
Improvements,  Production  and  Distribution,  Edu- 
cation, Morality  and  Religion,  Marriage  and 
Divorce,  Life  in  the  New  Republic,  Life  in  the 
Existing  Republic,  Examination  of  the  Existing 
Republic,  Examination  of  the  Objections  to  Com- 
munism, Methods  Proposed  for  the  Transition 
from  the  System  of  Individual  Property  to  a  Sys 
tern  of  Collective  Property,  Danger. 


500    Pages. 
F*a.per,   25    cents  ;    Cloth,    50    cents. 


Twentieth  Century  Pub.  Co.,  New  York. 


'JUSTICE     FOR      THE      CREATORS      OP      WEALTH 


THE    DAWNING. 

A     NOVEL. 

By    J.     M.     L.     BABCOCK. 


"The  Dawning  "  is  a  novel  that  takes  up  the  injustice  done  by  the  rich  to 
the  poor,  the  mischievous  misunderstanding  between  employers  and  em- 
ployed, the  relation  of  capital  to  labor,  the  shortcomings  of  the  Church,  and 
the  imperfections  of  the  law  in  regard  to  workingmen.  There  is  no  angry 
vituperation,  no  abuse  of  the  rich  because  they  are  rich  ;  but  the  author  has 
an  intense  feeling  about  the  great  injustice  that  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the 
whole  practical  treatment  of  labor,  about  the  bad  effect  of  this  injustice  upon 
all  classes,  and  the  social  dangers  that  it  creates  and  fosters.  The  hero  and 
heroine  of  the  story  are  very  noble  characters.  Langdon  Bowditch  becomes 
interested  in  workingmen,  and  frankly  expresses  his  new  ideas  at  his  club  and 
at  the  houses  of  his  friends.  He  loses  his  popularity  among  the  lighter  and 
gayer  youths  of  both  sexes,  but  he  wins  the  enduring  love  of  a  beautiful  girl, 
who  believes,  as  he  believes,  in  faithfulness  to  one's  ideal,  and  that  for  the 
only  perfect  love  the  ideal  of  both  man  and  woman  rnust  be  identical,  must 
be  a  life  'resting  on  the  basis  of  absolute  right,  intensified  by  the  highest 
moral  inspiratioji,  devoted  to  the  highest  human  good.'  "...  -  [Boston 
Advertiser. 

"  The  book  is,  on  the  whole,  so  --ood,  and  breathes  such  pure  sentiments, 
that  we  are  convinced  that  no  one  can  read  it  without  being  elevated  thereby, 
and  w«  especially  recommend  it  to  those  young  men  and  women  who  are  just 
entering  upon  life,  and  have  not  yet  decided  what  part  to  take  in  it  It  may 
help  them  to  see,  in  the  words  of  the  author,  '  that  it  is  not  what  a  man  gains, 
but  what  he  strives  for,  that  indicates  the  tone  and  fibre  of  his  character,'  and 
that  true  happiness  lies  not  in  the  beaten  paths  of  the  world,  but  in  the  com- 
paratively untried  paths  of  justice  and  truth."— ILiberty. 

"  It  is  an  admirably  digested  and  thoughtfu'.  work.  The  plot  is  ingenious, 
the  action  spirited,  and  the  narrative  eloquent.""— [Philadelphia  Item. 


HIGHLY  COMMENDED   BY  HUGH   O.  PENTECOST. 

3S2     F'ages.         F*aper,     50    Cents. 

Twentietli  Century  Publishing  Co.,  New  York. 


WtMTILTH@URY 


w 


EEKLY       RADICAL       MAGAZINE. 


HUGH  O.  PENTECOST,  Editor. 

J.  W.  SULLIVAN,  Associate  Editor 


Motto:    "'HEAR    THE    OTHER    SIDE." 
AIM  :     To  go  to  the  root  of  Religion  and  Sociology. 

METHOD  :  To  offer  a  free  platform  for  the  discussion  of 
every  phase  of  Religious  and  Sociologic  thought. 

ATTITUDE  :  The  Spirit  of  Truth  as  contrasted  with  the  Spirit 
of  Triumph. 

CONTRIBUTORS  :  Representatives  of  all  creeds  and  move- 
ments. 

CONTENTS  :  Editorials,  Contributed  Articles,  Sermon  by  the 
Rev.  Cater  Totherich,  Correspondence,  Fiction,  Poetry, 
"  Working  of  the  Yeast,"  Current  News  of  all  Movements, 
Book  Reviews,  etc. 

SUBSCRIPTIONS— For  fifty-two  weeks,  $2 ;  twenty-six  weeks,  $1 ;  thir- 
teen weeks,  60  cents.  Single  copies,  5  cents.  For  sale  at  news  stands  or  at 
office  of  publication.    To  foreign  countries  in  the  postal  union,  one  year,  $3. 

SAMPLK     COPY     FREK. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  PUBLISHING  CO., 

7  CLINTON  PUCE,  NEW  YORK  CITY. 

FRED.  C.  LEUBUSCHER,         ALBERT  L.  LEUBU.SCHER, 

President  and  Treasurer.  Business  Manager. 

Chicago  Branch  Office  :    Room  1103,  Chamber   of   Commerce   Buildinjf 
corner  La  Salle  and  Washington  streets.     W.  H.  VAN  ORNUM,  Manag*" 

^pW  All  remittances  tihould  be  made  to  the  New  York  office. 

5  8  5       1  ^> 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 

Krrn  f  n-iipp 


m    9  ^^nB  1  2  1974 

REC'D  LD-URJJ 


MY  3  nm 

JUN  8    1952 


R  E  C 

MAIN  LOAN 


A.M, 

7i8'9iioinr 


^    JUL-3  19W 

Form  Li-9-15»»-7,'32 


LD 
URL 


DECiS 


1977 


I  V  EOl 

DESK 


t> 


>     •     -    I 


12 


P.M. 

1121314151:3 


^jn 


^ 


y'^'^ 


AA    000  811796    2 


i 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

LUS  AMGELEf- 
LIBRABl 


